EU postpones FYROM accession talks for 2019

The Greek minister said that there were two different lines in the debate held at the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on EU enlargement.

One had the majority of the 25 EU member states willing to open negotiations with FYROM and Albania from now until the summer of 2019. On the other side, Denmark, France and the Netherlands wanted to postpone it.

Coming out of the meeting, Mr Kotzias noted that he explained to his counterparts in the clearest way that the geopolitical situation in the region requires assistance to these two countries and not the postponement of the meeting and that the internal situation in these two countries requires stability and security rather than the creation of new problems.

Mr Kotzias was criticized for his position, as he was labeled my many as the foreign minister of FYROM, rather than Greece. A remark by FYROM foreign minister Dimitrov that Kotzias was championing his country even more ardently than himself fuelled the criticism.than 

Nikos Kotzias stressed that we are in a compromise that will allow opening of the chapter of the accession negotiations by the summer of 2019.