site.btaMichel: Opening Accession Talks with Skopje, Tirana Is Top Priority

Opening accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania is a top priority, European Council President Charles Michel told the European Parliament on Wednesday. He said he arrived in Strasbourg from his seventh visit to Skopje in the last few months.

"The EU needs the Western Balkans as much as the Western Balkans need us," said Michel. He called the talks at the EU-Western Balkans Summit frank, open, hard, but also much needed. "We decided how to re-energize our engagement with this region and we re-affirmed our strong commitment to revive the enlargement process and to see how to clear the obstacles along the way."

On the second day of the European Council meeting, the Bulgarian Parliament voted to overturn its veto on North Macedonia beginning EU membership talks, Michel said. He thanked the French Presidency for the tireless efforts to help bridge the gap between North Macedonia and Bulgaria and for opening the possibility to move this process forward swiftly for both North Macedonia and Bulgaria.