North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristjian Mickoski will meet today in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, on the sidelines of the Hungarian-Macedonian intergovernmental conference, BGNES reports.

According to the agenda, a face-to-face meeting between Mr Mickoski and Hungarian Prime Minister Orban is foreseen. Bilateral meetings will be held between the line ministers, followed by a joint meeting of the two governments.

After the intergovernmental meeting, the two prime ministers will hold a joint press conference.

Yesterday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stated Hungary's support for the European integration of North Macedonia.

He and Macedonian Foreign Minister Timcho Mucunski held a bilateral meeting.

Szijjártó stressed that both countries are "for" peace in Ukraine, which they have shown by supporting the UN resolution tabled by the US.

"We and the Republic of North Macedonia are on the side of peace. We support President Trump and the success of the US-Russian negotiations because we clearly see that peace can only be achieved through a US-Russian agreement. Macedonians and Hungarians are interested in the return of peace and this is demonstrated by our cooperation last week at the UN when we supported the US resolution," Szijjártó said at the joint press conference.

"The EU needs fresh strength and it can only come from the Western Balkans," added Sijarto, who believes the EU is currently more interested in the membership of some countries than the countries themselves.

He accused "a large number of countries of behaving hypocritically and that this contributes to destroying the credibility of the Western Balkan countries".

"We constantly hear that the decision on EU membership should be based on merit and Hungary agrees with this," Szijjártó said, stressing that this principle should apply to all.

Regarding European integration, Mucunski assessed that the country is at a "crucial crossroads, because despite the many difficult and unusual decisions taken in the hope of realising our dream of joining the European family, we are still in the EU waiting room".

"After all the hard concessions from our side and the long-term promises from our European partners, we are still in the waiting room and we have an uncertain road ahead, conditioned by constitutional changes and a number of other bilateral demands imposed by our neighbour Bulgaria. Notwithstanding the serious challenges we face, we want to believe that by maximising the use of our political and diplomatic capacities, the goal that Europe has set for itself - to become an equal member of the common, democratic and prosperous European family by 2030 - is realistically achievable," said Mucunski.

Yesterday, the two ministers signed an action plan to exchange expertise on mutually agreed EU integration topics.

This is the second joint meeting of the two governments. 

Prime Ministers Mickoski and Orban led the government delegations to the joint intergovernmental session held last September in Ohrid, which confirmed the strategic alliance between the two countries and reaffirmed Hungary's strong support for our European integration. | BGNES