Skopje, 30 July 2025 (MIA) -- The country's accession to the European Union needs to have an ending, Minister of European Affairs Orhan Murtezani told a press conference held together with Ireland's Minister of State for European Affairs and Defense Thomas Byrne. 

Murtezani was answering a reporter's question on how long the government would wait for Bulgaria's response to the proposal of putting to a vote a joint resolution on the Macedonian language and identity in the European Parliament before engaging in dialogue with official Sofia.

He highlighted the need of building good neighborly relations.

"We need to build joint positions as neighbors, considering we keep citing the Copenhagen criteria. The first condition of the Copenhagen criteria is good neighborly relations, both for us and for Bulgaria," Murtezani said.

"What we have been doing these past few months -- all these visits of ministers of European affairs, ministers of foreign affairs -- is to draw attention to all our concerns, and not to lay the groundwork for renegotiating what has already been negotiated.

"Still, we need to find a way, as Minister Byrne said, for there to be an ending to our process," Murtezani said.

Byrne said he would put in his best efforts to make the country's merit-based accession to the EU easier.

He said the EU would officially open the membership talks once the country implements the agreement reached three years ago.

He also said the Macedonian language was already officially recognized by the EU, recalling that the Frontex agreement was written in Macedonian. mr/