Slovenia Greets Visa Scrapping for Macedonia

Slovenia wants Macedonia to join the European Union as soon as possible and welcomes the scrapping of the EU's visa requirement, visiting Slovenian Interior Minister Katarina Kresal said on Tuesday in Skopje.

Together with her Macedonian counterpart, Gordana Jankulovska, Kresal signed a grant agreement on behalf of the countries.

Under the agreement, Slovenia will donate document verification and authentication devices that are crutial for Macedonia’s reforms in this sector.

The main reason for Kresal's trip to Skopje was the upcoming visa liberalisation that will enable Macedonian nationals to travel without visas to the EU as of 19 December.

At a Slovenian incentive, the lifting of the visa requirements will happen sooner than the earlier planned 1 January, 2010, “as a holiday gift to enable the citizens of Macedonia to choose where to spend their upcoming holidays”, Kresel said.

Macedonia went trough substantial reforms including improving border security, modernizing the border crossings, improving the fight against crime and issuing new biometrical passports in order to satisfy the demands for the lifting of the visa requirements.

Jankuloska stressed that Slovenia has been a big supporter of Macedonia throughout this process. "Given the unconditional support that Slovenia provides to Macedonia in fields spanning justice and home affairs, today we had an exceptional meeting and we addressed the joint projects," she said.

The interior ministers agreed to deepen the cooperation in the future.

Macedonia was granted the status of EU candidate member in 2005 and the country has a chance of getting a start date for its accession negotiations to the Union in December.