Skopje, 14 March 2022 (MIA) — Today's visit of the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell to the country shows that the EU stands by its enlargement agenda and is focused on the Western Balkans, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj told a news conference Monday. Commenting on Borrell's statement that he couldn’t promise a date for North Macedonia’s start of EU negotiations, Deputy PM Marichikj said only Skopje and Sofia could resolve the bilateral issue whereas Brussels could only offer support in the process. “We’ve learned the lesson that no one can promise us a date many times,” Marichikj said. “This is nothing new. The key to resolving this issue is between Skopje and Sofia. Brussels and the EU member states can only help in supporting the process. “This is why since the new Government was formed we have been in intense communication with Bulgaria. This is also why we’ve never set a date and tied ourselves to a particular time, because we know how ungrateful this is and because we know that it didn’t help us in the past two or three years,” he said. He added that being committed to reaching a solution as soon as possible was much more important than setting a date. Asked to comment on the meeting between former PM Zoran Zaev and the Bulgarian PM Kiril Petkov at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, the Deputy PM for European Affairs said the goal was to further encourage dialogue between North Macedonia and Bulgaria. “Former Prime Minister Zaev participated in the Antalya Forum as a guest,” Marichikj said. “I don’t think this should be interpreted any other way than as giving encouragement to the talks and improving the atmosphere through dialogue between the governments of North Macedonia and Bulgaria. “Prime Minister Kovachevski and Prime Minister Petkov are in regular communication. As a government, we discuss all open issues. Some of these issues are being discussed in closed sessions due to the sensitivity of the information.” mr/