The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Poposki, has received today at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Skopje the Ambassador of Ireland to the Republic of Macedonia resident in Bucharest, H.E. Mr. Oliver Grogan. 

At their meeting, Minister Poposki and Ambassador Grogan have discussed a number of issues ranging from the continuous Irish support for the full-fledged integration of the Republic of Macedonia into the European Union and the major activities that Ireland is planning to pursue under its ongoing EU Presidency to the EU’s enlargement policy and the process’s progress which form a part of the priorities on the agenda of the Irish EU Presidency.

In that context, Minister Poposki has underlined that setting Macedonia a date for starting EU accession negotiations in the course of the incumbent Irish EU Presidency shall be of historic importance for the Republic of Macedonia, particularly when taking into consideration that it was precisely during the previous Irish EU Presidency in the first half of 2004 that the EU membership application of the Republic of Macedonia was officially submitted and adequately processed within the EU system.

Irish Ambassador Grogan has been paying a visit to the Republic of Macedonia with the task of representing his country’s current Presidency of the Council of the European Union, continuing the already established practice of a representative of the country holding the EU Presidency at any particular moment presenting the Presidency’s program and priorities before the national institutions of the Republic of Macedonia.