Bulgaria Oks Macedonia's EU Membership, Expects Respect

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | November 25, 2010, Thursday // 11:59
Bulgaria: Bulgaria Oks Macedonia's EU Membership, Expects Respect Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov stated Bulgaria is in favor of EU enlargement on a public lecture Thursday. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria will not oppose any state's aspirations to join EU, including Macedonia, according to the Balkan country's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov.

"Bulgaria is in favor of Macedonia's admission in EU. We will not, however, hear any more insulting comments about our country from them," Mladenov declared.

He expressed his views during a public lecture on EU's enlargement strategy and progress reports. Mladenov focused on the importance of the integration of all Western Balkan states.

"Bulgaria is the newest country in EU and, as such, it will not be the first directly to oppose any state's ambitions to join the union. Our experience, however, suggests that we require every new member to be fully prepared," Mladenov declared.

"We hope that all Western Balkan successfully join the union by 2014," the Bulgarian Foreign Minister explained, thus reinstating a position he already has shared on several occasions.

Last week, the progress reports on nine EU hopefuls – Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, and Iceland - were adopted by the European Commission making it clear that only Croatia and Iceland are tangibly close to joining it.

Bulgaria's immediate neighbor Macedonia was set back in its EU efforts by its name dispute with EU member Greece, as Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele pointed out.

With regard to Macedonia's relations with Bulgaria the progress report stated that they remain good but that some ethnic issues continue to be a cause of concern

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Tags: Nikolay Mladenov, Bulgaria, macedonia, Western Balkans, enlargement, EU

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