Meeting of the President of the Hellenic Parliament with the President of the Parliament of North Macedonia

The President of the Hellenic Parliament, Mr Constantine Tassoulas, met with the President of the Parliament of North Macedonia, Mr Talat Xhaferi, during the Conference of Presidents of Parliaments of the Council of Europe member states.

At the end of the meeting, Mr Tassoulas and Mr Xhaferi made the following statements:

C. Tassoulas: “I am here with the President of the Parliament of North Macedonia, a country which Greece has signed an agreement with that needs to be implemented fully in order to improve relations between our countries. I am optimistic about this, after this meeting with the President of the Parliament of our neighbouring country, but also because of my meeting with the President of North Macedonia a few days ago. Today we talked more specifically and analyzed the ways the two Parliaments could cooperate through our Parliamentary Friendship Groups.

I believe and feel that after our bilateral meeting we need to encourage the relations between our parliaments, because the improvement of these relations will only benefit us, as well as the improvement of the cooperation between our neighbouring countries. Greece, I told the President, is interested on the whole, in the European development of the Western Balcans, a policy that the Greek Government supported in 2003, at the Thessaloniki Summit. This development in the Western Balcans, that involves Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia of course, which is at a different phase, will eventually transfuse a historic and economic dimension in the wider area, thus achieving its goal. Greece, of course, will be a pioneer in these initiatives since it is one of the oldest members of the European Union. I welcome him to Athens and to Greece, but mainly I welcome his sincere intention for further improvement of the relations of the two countries and I think that it is the duty of the parliaments we chair to lead the way”.

T. Xhaferi: “I would like as well to express my pleasure and pride, as the President of the North Macedonian Parliament. It is the first time that I meet with the President of the Greek Parliament. I believe that this is a historic moment for both countries and I am optimistic about this ratified agreement and it is up to us as parliamentarians to make every effort for the implementation and application of this agreement. We are currently at the first phase of the implementation, some points of the agreement have been implemented, some have not, but we move in the right direction. We are taking steps towards the building of mutual trust between our countries, with the first step being the surveillance of our airspace, which was entrusted with the Hellenic Republic.

Of course, I would like to repeat my thanks concerning Greece’s support on the opening of accession negotiations of North Macedonia. During our meeting I reiterated our open invitation. I said that we will be happy to welcome the President of the Greek Parliament to North Macedonia, in Skopje, for a formal visit. In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your hospitality and for the opportunity we had to make this historic meeting between the Presidents of Parliament of the two countries possible. This is the first meeting at this level, but certainly it will not be the last, it will be the first of many to come”.