“It was a pleasure to meet with Mr. Maasikas, my Estonian counterpart. During our one-to-one talks and in the talks with our associates, we discussed bilateral issues that concern both countries, but mainly European issues that concern our region as well as Europe. As Mr. Maasikas said, we talked about the multi-annual financial framework, how this Europe can become stronger and more social, with more solidarity. We discussed the topic – mainly in our one-to-one talks – of the enlargement of the European Union. We agreed that the enlargement package was very positive, and we welcomed the fact that the package for candidate countries and countries ‘in the process of becoming candidates’ has been submitted and has the recommendations that need to be made. And that it says that a signal has to be sent, mainly to North Macedonia, to start the accession procedures. And on the other hand, in Albania, of whose accession we are in favour – just as we are in favour of North Macedonia’s joining – on the condition that Albania complies with the five chapters, the five points, that it has to complete in order to get an accession date. Of these five points, the minority issue and the property issue are the ones to which Greece attaches very great importance.We welcome the Commission’s statement on the Turkey issue. You are well aware that we are sincerely and firmly in favour of Turkey's accession to the European Union. But in recent years, Turkey has not taken the steps it needs to take, and there is a fear that Turkey is pulling away from its European perspective. We welcome the statement in the European Commission’s report that Turkey’s provocative conduct in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, in the region of Cyprus, jeopardizes not only our region’s security, but also Europe’s. And finally, Mr. Maasikas and I talked about the very important issue of migration, and we said that the policy of solidarity and fair burden-sharing must prevail in the European Union.”
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