Ambassador Schieb: North Macedonia’s EU accession negotiations will be known very soon


German Ambassador to Serbia Thomas Schieb hopes that the date for the start of North Macedonia’s EU accession negotiations will be known very soon.

“Because of intensive harmonization, in Germany among others, the decision for the start of the negotiations has been delayed until October. Germany welcomes the great statesmanship achievement of North Macedonia and Greece, managing to solve the name issue after such a long time, and therefore we hope that the country will launch negotiations very soon,” Ambassador Schieb said on Thursday.

According to him, Berlin believes that the accession of new members and reforms within the EU are two separate processes that have to develop in parallel.

“EU’s internal reforms will take place until the Union exists, for the purpose of its adaptation to the new circumstances. This is a continual process that does not prevent the reception of new members, once candidates meet the required criteria. Serbia is implementing difficult reforms that will take some time, EU is implementing its own reforms, and Serbia will join the EU at one point. These are processes that develop in parallel, not one after the other,” said Schieb.

Regarding the Srebrenica massacre anniversary, Schieb said the stance of Germany and the other EU members is that genocide took place in Srebrenica in 1995, adding his expectation that Serbia would also take that position.