PM Dancila meets Macedonian Deputy PM Osmani and reiterates Romania's support for Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic integration

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila reiterated on Monday Romania's constant support for the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Republic of Macedonia, within a meeting with Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bujar Osmani, a Government release informs.

According to an Executive release, the official visit to Romania of Deputy PM Osmani is the first to be paid after the ratification by Macedonia's Parliament of the Law amending the Constitution and takes place in the context in which Romania holds the Presidency at the EU Council.

"The meeting of the two officials represented a good opportunity to reconfirm Romania's openness to strengthen the entire bilateral relations, in continuing the discussions which PM Dancila carried out within her official visit to Skopje, on 27 June 2018. The bilateral dialogue and the constant growth of the bilateral trade were hailed. Prime Minister Viorica Dancila commended the adoption by the Macedonian Parliament of the Law amending the Constitution of the country, on 11 January 2019, thus, meeting the obligations assumed by the Government in Skopje in the historic agreement of Prespa. Moreover, the Romanian high official voiced her satisfaction regarding the positive vote cast by Parliament in Athens to ratify the Prespa Agreement on 25 January 2019," the release showed.

During the meeting, the Romanian PM "reiterated Romania's constant support for the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Republic of Macedonia, voicing confidence that the Republic of North Macedonia, with the country's new constitutional name, will become the 30th member of the Alliance."

"In this context, the Romanian dignitary assured the high Macedonian official of Romania's support for his county's accession to the EU and encouraged the Macedonian authorities to continue the reform process, in order to obtain concrete results during the Romanian Presidency at the EU Council," according to the release.

In his turn, the Macedonian Deputy PM argued the need to further develop the bilateral relations, especially in the economic area, and pointed out that the organisation of an economic forum with the participation of both countries' business milieus would be an useful tool in this regard. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Florea, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)