Skopje, 6 April 2022 (MIA) – Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski met Wednesday with Majlinda Bregu, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), which is the operational arm of the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP). The talks tackled the importance of regional cooperation, as contribution to stability and security of the region and establishing a common regional market to promote economies in the countries. Therefore, participants in the meeting said that it is necessary to promote synergy between the countries in the region on the road to their development, the government said. They assessed that the war in Ukraine emphasized the importance of the Euro-Atlantic integration of Southeast Europe and the European future of the countries in the region. “The opening of EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania will be a motivation and encouragement for other countries in the region to continue with the EU-related reforms, which has proved important both for the region and for Europe. PM Kovachevski said that principled talks are being held with Prime Minister Petkov, and that the government is focused on overcoming the challenges of the war in Ukraine through the minimum wage increase, pensions increase, citizen support in the field of electricity bills, i.e. support the standard of citizens and companies for which a set of anti-crisis measures has been adopted,” the government said in a press release. They also discussed the possibilities for strengthening the regional cooperation through new projects within the Regional Cooperation Council, as instruments for faster Western Balkans EU integration process.