Mickoski should have used this visit to ask Orban publicly why the ambassador of Hungary, otherwise the EU presidency, voted for the separation of Macedonia and Albania.
This is what the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia /SDSM/ party said about today's visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to North Macedonia, reports BGNES.
"Why, during the Hungarian EU presidency, are Macedonian citizens in a situation where they are last in line to enter the EU? Mickoski should have asked Orban why he did not help as a strategic partner during the period when they were negotiating loans of dubious Chinese origin to change the negotiating framework, as Mickoski promised," the party said in a statement.
"Mickoski and Orbán offered nothing to the citizens, except that they decided to oblige them with a new 500 million euros and bury the country's European perspective," it added.
BGNES recalls that on 25 September the EU decided to separate Albania from North Macedonia in the negotiation process on the path to European integration.
Earlier today Orban commented on the situation, saying:
"North Macedonia has a conflict with Bulgaria that is blocking their EU accession process. Due to the debates related to the situation of national minorities, we in Hungary, as the current EU president, felt it was imperative to visit the countries that are in the most difficult situation in terms of EU accession and help them resolve the existing conflicts."
He pointed out that the EU had made a mistake by slowing down the integration process of the Western Balkan countries.
"This mistake is magnified given that the country will be behind Albania on the road to the EU, for which I see no reason," Orban pointed out.
"The stability of the Western Balkans and their integration into the EU are very important. Membership is a huge opportunity. We have all seen that we have made progress with membership, but the EU has lost its dynamism and we need to ensure enlargement. We do not ignore the fact that Ukraine and Moldova have received an extraordinary acceleration on the road to the EU. We must respect the countries that have worked for this for a long time, now they are being put on the back foot, and that is not fair. We believe that it is important to preserve the Republic of Macedonia's membership of the EU and, accordingly, we would like to speed up Macedonia's accession process. We are ready to organise a Second Intergovernmental Conference, if not, we will deal with bilateral issues", the head of the Hungarian government pointed out. | BGNES
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