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Macedonia Welcomes Slovenian EU Support

14 09 2007  Skopje _ Macedonia welcomes Slovenia’s support for its EU membership bid, foreign ministry spokesman Spresa Jusufi told Balkan Insight on Friday.

Late on Thursday, Slovenia’s State Secretary for European Affairs, Janez Lenarcic, told media in Ljubljana that his country would “try to set a start date for membership talks with Macedonia during the Slovenian EU presidency”, scheduled for the first half of 2008.

But Lenarcic warned that it would be unrealistic to expect an immediate start to the talks, due to the length of procedures.

Jusufi described the Slovenian statement as “absolutely positive”, and told Balkan Insight that it was in line with his ministry’s expectations on that matter.

“We expect to get a date for the beginning of talks during the Slovenian presidency and we are hoping to start the talks during 2008”, Jusufi said.

As Lenarcic mentioned Thursday, during its presidency Slovenia will focus on all western Balkans countries that are still outside the EU.

Lenarcic pointed to the Kosovo final status process and the so-called “enlargement fatigue” in the EU, after welcoming 12 new members in the past three years, as two of the main concerns for Balkan stability in the future.

In 2005 the EU granted Macedonia candidate status but avoided setting a date for opening talks on membership.