Poland’s Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk visited the Macedonian capital alongside Germany’s Anna Lührmann and France’s Laurence Boone this week, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland, France and Germany together form what is known as the Weimar Triangle, a group they set up in the early 1990s.
Poland pushing for EU enlargement
After returning from North Macedonia on Tuesday, the Polish minister told reporters in Warsaw that Poland was at the forefront of EU countries pushing for the bloc’s further enlargement.
Szynkowski vel Sęk said: “Several years ago, we proposed the format of the Eastern Partnership. In 2019, Poland presided over the so-called Berlin Process, the EU initiative to engage with the six Western Balkan partners and advance the European integration agenda.”
He added: “Shortly after our presidency, the EU in March 2020 approved the start of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, but afterwards this process somehow stalled.”
Szynkowski vel Sęk also said that at that point, some EU countries had distanced themselves from the policy of enlargement.
He told reporters that “much has changed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year,” with Ukraine now granted EU candidate status, thanks to efforts by politicians including Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Szynkowski vel Sęk said: “Currently discussions are under way to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. It is our hope that the EU will open these negotiations by the end of the year.”
He told reporters that Poland’s top politicians, including President Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, were taking various measures, including “very actively through the Weimar Triangle,” to encourage fellow EU countries and the bloc’s institutions "to engage more efficiently with the policy of enlargement."
Szynkowski vel Sęk stated: “It is in Poland’s well-considered interest for the EU to keep expanding, to grow stronger, and for this sphere of security and economic prosperity to widen.”
He added that the meetings of the Weimar Triangle and Ukraine, in the town of Kórnik near Poznań, western Poland, had helped persuade France to step up its support for EU enlargement, the PAP news agency reported.
Szynkowski vel Sęk said that at one of these meetings it was decided that the Weimar Triangle ministers for European affairs would next meet in North Macedonia.
'Signal of support for North Macedonia's EU bid'
He told reporters that, together with Lührmann and Boone, he had met with the Balkan country’s President Stevo Pendarovski, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski and the leaders of North Macedonia’s political parties.
Szynkowski vel Sęk said this week’s visit by the Weimar Triangle officials represented “an important signal of support for North Macedonia and its aspirations to join the EU.”
He added that the Polish, French and German ministers for European affairs are now planning to meet in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in the autumn, the PAP news agency reported.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Tuesday is day 510 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP