Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki held talks Tuesday in Brussels with EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom.

Poposki extended gratitude to the European Commission over its proactive approach to launching of Macedonia's EU accession talks at forthcoming summit of the European Council, MoFa said in a press release.

Macedonia is fully prepared for the start of the entry talks and the screening process, particularly in regard to the key EU acquis' chapters 23 - judiciary and fundamental rights and 24 - justice, freedom and security, the press release reads.

Macedonia's legislation related to the chapter 24 - for which Malmstrom is in charge - has been to a large extent harmonized with the EU standards, Poposki told Malmstrom.

They agreed that the introduction of EU free visa regime presented a great success and concrete benefit for the citizens of Macedonia, Vast majority of them respect the rules of this regime, but nonetheless the Macedonian Government shares the concern of repeated growth of false asylum seekers in the EU member and  Schengen Agreement signatory states, addressing the problem with utmost seriousness and urgency, Poposki said. In that respect, he said the country had intensified the efforts to deal with this problem by launching campaigns for raising the public awareness, improving the living standard of the most vulnerable groups, tightening the control at border crossings and bolstering the cooperation with the member states.

Malmstrom hailed Macedonia's efforts related to the pre-accession process and expressed hope for the country to soon commence the EU entry talks. She reaffirmed Macedonia's continuous progress in preparing to take over the EU membership obligations related to the chapter on justice, freedom and security. Malmstrom said she highly appreciated the proactive approach of Macedonia's relevant institutions to take all-inclusive measures against asylum seekers, recommending for their momentum to be maintained, especially for those that refer to the socio-economic aspect.