"Lithuania's Presidency of the Council of the European Union would like to see the country's progress towards accession negotiations and is ready to share its own experience. However, the Republic of Macedonia should show initiative. The success of the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue has demonstrated that complex political decisions not necessarily reduce confidence in the domestic political arena," Linkevičius said.
According to Linkevičius, the 10th meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council in Brussels on 23 July is also a sign of the country's progress. As the Foreign Minister of the EU Presidency, Linkevičius led the EU delegation on behalf of the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton at the meeting.
As the leader of the EU delegation, Linkevičius underlined that Skopje faced difficult domestic and foreign policy challenges, including interethnic tension, government stability, media dialogue, the issue of the country's name, and good neighbourly relations. The Foreign Minister encouraged the country's leadership to look ahead and to build bridges between different political parties in the Parliament, the government, civil society, the media, the country's ethnic groups, and its neighbouring countries.
The Stabilisation and Association Council meets once a year to review and assess the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which is an important step towards EU membership for the candidate countries. The agreement entered into force in 2004.
The country was granted candidate status for EU membership in 2005. The European Commission recommended in 2009 that accession negotiations be opened, but the European Council has not taken a decision on this yet.
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