Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Maricik today participated in the regional event within the initiative "Balkan Dialogues" organized by the French Senate, emphasizing that now is the right time for Europe to take the necessary step to preserve the values that are based the Union is based on.

Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Maricik today participated in the regional event within the initiative "Balkan Dialogues" organized by the French Senate, emphasizing that now is the right time for Europe to take the necessary step to preserve the values that the Union is based on.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that this year is crucial for defining the enlargement policy, from which the region expects the European integration process to move forward and confirm its European future.

"If the Union does not respond to this call and North Macedonia and Albania do not receive a date for the start of negotiations, then the entire Western Balkans is set aside, without a clear perspective and with the possibility of other external influences," Maricik said.

According to Maricik, it is not in the interest of pro-European governments like ours, but in favour of those who nurture the Russian narrative that the EU is a failure story and stressed that procrastination and postponement of decisions have not yielded anything positive and that the unification of Western Balkans with the EU cannot be postponed any further.

"I believe that Europe will show its greatest strength, and that is its unity and will prove why it is a global leader, with a turnaround in the European integration process, which is already urgent," said Deputy Prime Minister Maricik.