Greek PM disagrees with Bulgarian veto

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a press conference on Thursday that he disagrees with the Bulgarian veto of North Macedonia’s EU accession and that admitting the Balkans to the EU should be sped up.

“Of course, the Western Balkans could not be absent from our discussion. They will be on our minds next Tuesday and Wednesday when we meet together in Ljubljana. And we agreed that the accession process of the Western Balkans must be accelerated in order to prevent the Western Balkans from becoming a hotbed of new problems. The Balkan Peninsula is European; therefore, its future lies only through Europe,” according to an official statement from the Greek PM’s office.

When he was in opposition, Mitsotakis’s New Democracy party voted against the name-change deal “Prespa Agreement”, which paved the way for Skopje to join the EU.

When he took power, he made a U-turn and fully supported the Balkan country’s EU perspective.

However, he still faces issues within his party – particularly with the right-wing faction – as three memoranda of understanding that form part of the Prespa Agreement are still pending approval by the Greek parliament.

The opposition says Mitsotakis is reluctant to put them through parliament to avoid division in his party.

(Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)