Austrian Chancellor Kurz to visit Macedonia on September 7th


Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is set to visit Macedonia on September 7, three weeks prior to scheduled name-change referendum.

Kurz is to visit Macedonia at the invitation of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who has also invited several other European leaders ahead of holding the referendum scheduled for September 30.

During Zaev’s last visit to Vienna at the end of June, Kurz appealed to citizens of Macedonia to vote in the referendum on the new name “North Macedonia.”

“Name agreement with Greece is decisive progress in Macedonia’s accession process towards the EU,” Kurz underlined.

According to him, achieving progress on the European perspective is one of the priorities of the Austrian EU Presidency.

“The EU is incomplete without Western Balkan countries,” Kurz said.

He told Austrian media outlets that he would like to discuss with PM Zaev on progress in the screening process.