The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, today had a farewell meeting with the Head of the EU Delegation to the Republic of Macedonia and EU Special Representative, Ambassador Erwan Fouere.

President Ivanov extended his gratitude to Ambassador Fouere for his efforts in advancing Republic of Macedonia’s EU integration process and for his active and personal contribution in promoting and bringing closer the European values to the citizens.

President Ivanov underlined that in the past 5 years, several events of exceptional importance for the European aspirations of the Republic of Macedonia have taken place: the European Commission’s two positive reports and two recommendations for opening of the EU accession negotiations, the liberalization of the visa regime. Regretfully, despite meeting all necessary criteria, the goal has not been achieved yet, President Ivanov said that for the Republic of Macedonia, key priority is the date for launching accession negotiations and that the Republic of Macedonia, aware of the obligations, is fully committed to implement all necessary reforms and is focused on finding mutually acceptable solution that would eliminate the obstacle to the country’s integrations. In that regard, President Ivanov referred to the Croatian – Slovenian dispute, as a successful model of running the integration processes and settling a bilateral issue in parallel.


Ambassador Fouere, extending his gratitude for the high level of open cooperation with the President of the Republic of Macedonia and his Cabinet, stressed that he appreciates the role of President Ivanov, at both internal and external level, in promoting the Republic of Macedonia at the international scene. Ambassador Fouere expressed his hope that Macedonia will soon start the accession negotiations that would lead to meeting the strategic goal – full fledged membership in the European Union and added that he would remain Macedonia’s proven friend and supporter.  

During the meeting, the interlocutors exchanged opinions on the latest political developments in the Republic of Macedonia.