The Macedonian state leadership is touring Europe calling for support so that Macedonia is set a date for opening accession talks. President Gjorge Ivanov visited Estonia, Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki visited Hungary and Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is going to visit Brussels on Thursday to attend the summit of the European people’s parties and meet a number of officials at the EC.

At his meetings in Tallinn, President Ivanov said Macedonia expected a fair treatment from the EU member states, as the other candidate member states have. He emphasized that Macedonia expected the EU member states to support its bid for integration at the December summit and argued that the positive examples from the European experience of resolving bilateral disputes should apply to Macedonia too. According to President Ivanov, Macedonia, not of its own guilt, has been thrown into a dispute with Greece. He stressed that Macedonia was committed to finding a solution and that the solution could be found with political will and concrete steps in the process. Macedonia is putting forward ideas and initiatives and expects a feedback from Greece, he explained.

The President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, believes the bilateral dispute should by no means be an impediment to opening accession talks and integration. However, he admitted Estonia had a restricted power to help Macedonia’s integration.