Bulgaria to Provide Experts to Assist the Pre-accession Process in Albania and the Republic of Macedonia
23 November 2018 News
‘Bulgaria offered expertise to assist the pre-accession process in Albania and the Republic of Macedonia towards membership of the European Union,’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva stated in Thessaloniki, where she took part in the fourth quadrilateral ministerial meeting between representatives of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and the Republic of Macedonia. Mrs Zaharieva also called on each of the four countries to designate a liaison officer to coordinate the implementation of decisions adopted jointly by the countries.
‘When we met in May (this year), we agreed to keep our meetings practically oriented and have them lead to tangible results involving universities, journalists travelling together between the four counties, and organising exchanges for young diplomats,’ Mrs Zaharieva noted. She highlighted Bulgaria’s efforts during its Presidency of the Council of the EU to greenlight the opening of negotiations with Albania and the Republic of Macedonia and pointed out that Bulgarian diplomats continued to work on ensuring European prospects for the Western Balkans.
‘Sofia 2018 followed Thessaloniki 2003 and I hope that soon we will hold Zagreb 2020. The Sofia Declaration and the Sofia Agenda contain specific suggestions concerning the cooperation between the 28 EU member states and the 6 Western Balkan countries that wish to accede,’ Mrs Zaharieva added. She also pointed out the specific areas of cooperation that European leaders had set in Sofia: security, economy, youth, connectivity, digitalisation, and good neighbourly relations.
Over the course of the Thessaloniki ministerial meeting, the participants also discussed a number of regional issues such as the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue and the post-election situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ekaterina Zaharieva highlighted how useful such meeting formats were and reminded everyone that it was precisely in Thessaloniki when she reached an agreement with her Albanian counterpart, Ditmir Bushati, on the recognition of Albania’s Bulgarian minority.
The Albanian representatives at the meeting were the country’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Artemis Dralo, and its Minister of Finance and Economy, Albana Shkurta; the Greek representatives were the country’s Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Georgios Katrougalos, and its Alternate Minister of Economy and Development, Stergios Pitsorlas; the Republic of Macedonia was represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikola Dimitrov.
At a bilateral meeting with her Macedonian counterpart, Nikola Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s highest-ranking diplomat discussed the specific steps on the implementation of the Amity, Good-neighbourliness, and Cooperation Agreement between their two countries and stated that it would be in their mutual interest if the Joint Multidisciplinary Committee achieved tangible results. Its third session is set to take place in Sofia next week. Ministers Zaharieva and Dimitrov discussed the upcoming joint business forum and the second joint meeting of the two countries’ cabinets to follow the signing of the Agreement.
Mrs Zaharieva also held a meeting with Greece’s Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Georgios Katrougalos, in which they discussed a number of aspects in the sphere of regional cooperation, focusing on energy. The ministers highlighted the importance of energy diversification in the Balkans.
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