Granada, 5 October 2023 (MIA) - North Macedonia is a country-leader in the Western Balkans regarding the EU accession process. We already have over 45-percent alignment of our legislation with the EU law, most of our institutions have already harmonized their operations with the EU counterparts, and North Macedonia will surely be part of the EU enlargement, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski told a press conference within the European Political Community (EPC) summit, MIA reports from Granada.

"The country is finishing the bilateral screening and the report on the first cluster 'Fundamentals' is complete. We are already working on the roadmap as basis for the accession process and the opening of chapters. What remains is for us to fulfill our task undertaken in the Negotiating Framework that has been approved by all 27 EU member-states, by adopting the constitutional amendments, immediately followed by the opening of the first cluster," said PM Kovachevski.

According to him, it is important that the EPC summit is taking place a day ahead of the informal European Council meeting focused on the Union's priorities in coming years.

"Following today's discussions, they will tackle enlargement as EU's strategic commitment, but also internal reforms related to the enlargement, thus ensuring the Union's functioning with the new states that are set to join by 2030. Therefore, EPC is an extremely important platform for North Macedonia and the Western Balkans as a whole," said Kovachevski.

According to him, Europe has managed to show that the only way to peace, stability, unity and prosperity on the continent is through joint efforts by all countries, be it EU members, candidates or aspirants.

"We are geographically and historically part of this continent, sharing common values. A joint security architecture is needed so that Europe lives in peace, freedom and prosperity. Europe has always been the centre of innovation and new processes, which can lead to development of businesses and better standard of life. Tomorrow's informal meeting of the European Council will also show that enlargement remains high on EU's agenda," noted Kovachevski.