Skopje — Von der Leyen: The EU welcomes North Macedonia with its identity and its language

Skopje, October 2 /ATSH-AA/ — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is on an official visit to Skopje, described the Prespa Agreement between North Macedonia and Greece as an example of “real political courage”, saying it paved the way for North Macedonia’s membership of NATO and showed how political decisions can contribute to building a common future.

“The Prespa Agreement was a moment of real political courage, when two countries chose to turn the page and write the next chapter of history together. It opened the door to NATO membership. And today, North Macedonia is a valued ally”, von der Leyen said after her meeting with the Macedonian Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski.

Referring to the country’s EU accession process, von der Leyen said that North Macedonia has a key step ahead of it to move forward and open the fundamentals cluster, and acknowledged the sensitivities linked to this issue.

“We welcome North Macedonia with its identity and its language. We believe that Macedonian culture and language can only enrich our Union, because our motto is diversity and unity and we take that very seriously”, she said.

Von der Leyen said the EU and North Macedonia are working in a similar way together to strengthen security, adding that the country is also part of the “Coalition of the Willing”, and praised the country’s support for Ukraine after the start of the war with Russia.

“When a friendly country and another European nation was attacked, North Macedonia rose in its support”, she said, adding that the country’s determination to support Ukraine has been “as strong as that of our Union”.