• Tuesday, 02 July 2024

North Macedonia will learn from Croatia's EU negotiations experience 

North Macedonia will learn from Croatia's EU negotiations experience 
Skopje, 6 September 2022 (MIA) - Croatia's former chief EU negotiator Vladimir Drobnjak will be paying a two-day visit to Skopje after being invited by the Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, Bojan Marichikj. Drobnjak will transfer the Croatian EU negotiating experiences at a series of meetings, due on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the members of the bodies from the negotiating structure after it was adopted by the government yesterday, the Secretariat for European Affairs said. Drobnjak and Marichikj will hold a coordination meeting on Tuesday before meetings with the coordinators of clusters and ministers in charge of clusters and with the working committee on EU integration with the state secretaries of the institutions. In addition, Drobnjak will present Croatia's experiences in the accession process, the new methodology and the negotiating framework and the negotiations procedures before the management of the Secretariat for European Affairs. The Croatian expert will also meet with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski and Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani. "The former Croatian chief EU negotiator, Vladimir Drobnjak, comes at a time when North Macedonia is in the midst of making intensive preparations to start the negotiating process. His expertise will have a vital contribution to the North Macedonia integration process into the EU and will serve as a transfer of knowledge for the Macedonian negotiating teams," the Secretariat said. Drobnjak served as chief negotiator in the accession talks of Croatia with the EU since the very beginning until the end of 2013. He was also the first EU ambassador, head of Croatia's permanent office in Brussels.