Skopje, 17 February 2023 (MIA) – Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi met Friday in Ljubljana with the President of the Slovenian Parliamentary Friendship Group with North Macedonia, Sandra Gazinkovski, as well as members of the group, the Parliament said in a press release.

MPs Aleksandar Veljanovski, president of the Parliamentary Group for Cooperation with the Slovenian Parliament and members Beti Rabadzievska-Naumovska and Berat Ajdari also attended the meeting. On the Slovenian side, Alma Intihar, Tomaž Lisec and Miroslav Gregorič were the MPs who attended the meeting.

“Gazinkovski, who is of Macedonian origin, reaffirmed the excellent dynamic of meetings between the two friendship groups from both parliaments. The fact that the group consists of 17 MPs out of a total 90 in Slovenian Parliament, is a strong indicator of the Slovenian lawmakers’ interest in cooperation with their Macedonian counterparts. Speaker Xhaferi, agreed with her statement and spoke about Parliament’s commitment to continuously establish parliamentary groups for cooperation with the Slovenian Parliament in all previous parliamentary mandates, as a reflection of the commitment of the MPs to cooperation with their Slovenian counterparts on matters of mutual interest,” said the Macedonian Parliament in a press release.

The Parliament said that MP Veljanovski expressed his satisfaction with the close cooperation with the Slovenian counterparts, as well as his expectations that the Slovenian assistance for North Macedonia’s European integration will continue.

“Regarding this process, Veljanovski presented the numerous irrational obstacles faced by North Macedonia on that path in the past decades and said that the opposition will not support the constitutional amendments since the EU cannot guarantee that there will not be other obstacles on the path to EU membership,” reads the press release.

The Slovenian MPs expressed an interest in the current level of harmonization of the Macedonian legislation with the EU acquis, in the parliamentary bodies in charge of EU affairs and the areas in which there is potential for the improvement of bilateral cooperation.

“The Slovenian side cordially offered their assistance and experience regarding the harmonization of the domestic legislation with the EU acquis, since as a country that has gone through this process, Slovenia has adopted specific solutions that could be of use and adopted to the needs of North Macedonia,” adds the press release. ad/nn/