Skopje, 10 November 2021 (MIA) – Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is paying an official visit to North Macedonia, says the country deserves to start the EU accession negotiations and hopes the Union will be more active in the attempts to help solve the problem with Bulgaria. “Netherlands was one of the countries holding out the longest against accession talks with the EU but so much progress has been made over the last couple of years and I personally wanted to convey the message that we are happy the EU has now decided to start accession talks. Unfortunately, there is a problem with Bulgaria that we have to solve. At least, this problem is now being taken care of that we can, in principle, start accession talks,” Rutte told Sitel TV and added he is cautiously optimistic regarding the country’s chances to launch negotiations in December. He hopes that a solution will be found after the elections in Bulgaria and the fact that his colleagues in the EU are “very much in agreement that this bilateral issue between Bulgaria and North Macedonia should not stand in the way in the opening of accession talks with both North Macedonia and Albania.” On a possible shift in power and whether it could affect on the process, Rutte refrains from speculating since it is a national matter. “I am personally a good friend of PM Zaev but of course we’ll work with every government of North Macedonia,” says Rutte. He says it is a coincidence that his first visit to the country comes a day ahead of the Government no-confidence vote in the Parliament. “This visit was planned a month before and one could not anticipate what the current political situation would be,” says the Dutch PM. He clarifies that the Netherlands was always strict but fair to the countries aspiring to join the EU. “Netherlands has been holding out on the accession talks for a long time but I can also acknowledge it was strict but always fair. Strict because it took a long time but fair that when all the steps had been taken, the Netherlands, but also France and others said ‘Yes’ to starting accession talks with North Macedonia. Of course, this issue raised over the summer with Bulgaria would irritate me a lot, because this is now what is holding back on actually starting the intergovernmental conference. In that sense I would say: hey guys, you solve this, not we as North Macedonia, but the rest of the European Union,” notes Rutte.