site.btaGerman Special Envoy for Western Balkans Meets with North Macedonia’s Assembly President, VMRO-DPMNE Leader in Skopje

Germany’s Special Envoy for the Western Balkans Manuel Sarrazin met with the President of the Assembly of North Macedonia Talat Xhaferi and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski during a working visit to Skopje. On Tuesday, Sarrazin will also meet with North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski.

At the meeting with Xhaferi, Sarrazin welcomed the cooperation between the Assembly of North Macedonia and the Bundestag. He focused on the exchange of experiences on parliamentary security and expressed support for the progress of North Macedonia's European integration process, noting that Germany wants the constitutional change process in this country to be completed as soon as possible, the Republic of North Macedonia's Assembly said in a press release.

Given the possibility of starting negotiations with Ukraine in December this year, the risk of separating North Macedonia from the rest is inevitable if it does not meet the necessary European requirements. Therefore, it is important how the issue of the adoption of the constitutional changes will be formulated, but it is even more important not to underestimate the deadline for their adoption. Sarrazin’s opinion is that a lot of time has been lost in the (Western Balkans) region and the current dynamics in the EU to accelerate its enlargement process should not be missed.

The focus of Sarrazin’s meeting with Hristijan Mickoski was the current political and economic situation in North Macedonia and the challenges its citizens are facing. Constitutional changes were also discussed at the meeting, with Mitkoski restating the position that "this government has no legitimacy for such a step and that accepting Bulgarian dictates will not happen".

This is Sarrazin’s second visit to North Macedonia in recent months.