Wednesday, 7 October 2020
MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENT XHAFERI AND COMMISSIONER OLIVÉR VÁRHELYI
The President of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, Talat Xhaferi, met today with the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, as part of his working visit to the country.
President Xhaferi expressed pleasure at meeting Commissioner Várhelyi again this year and special gratitude for the good news coming from Brussels on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia in the European integration process. He stressed that the Assembly has fulfilled its obligations within the reform process in the previous term and expressed hope that the activities, in cooperation with the opposition, will continue at an unabated pace as before.
President Xhaferi expressed gratitude for the continuous, decades-long support of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European institutions. "Our efforts, which should be formalized by the end of the year, by entering the new chapter of the accession process - starting the negotiations for membership in the Union and organizing the first intergovernmental conference within the German presidency of the Council of the EU," Xhaferi concluded.
Commissioner Várhelyi cordially thanked for the opportunity to speak before the Members of the Assembly, which he assessed as a privilege to directly address the citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia. According to him, in addition to the Progress Report and the Enlargement Strategy, the focus of the Commission is the proposed Economic Plan for the region, which is especially important for the further development of each country individually, and indirectly of the Union as a whole.
The Economic Plan aims to completely change and improve the lives of citizens in the Western Balkans region, with an emphasis on infrastructure, digitalization as a tool to promote economic development, attracting investment, creating new jobs, especially for young people. This package comes with preconditions that each aspiring country will have to accept and implement and in that regard, the role of the Assembly in that process is extremely important - in making decisions at the right time and with the right content, concluded Commissioner Várhelyi.
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