Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - The Hessian Europe Minister Lucia Puttrich (CDU) sets off on a three-day delegation trip to North Macedonia on Monday. The State Chancellery announced on Sunday that she wanted to find out about the current political situation in the country. "The Republic of North Macedonia has chosen a pro-Western and pro-European path and it is our task to support them on this path," Puttrich said, according to the statement.
North Macedonia has been an official EU candidate country since 2005. The State Chancellery explained that a dispute with neighboring Bulgaria is still standing in the way of the concrete start of EU accession negotiations.
On her trip, the minister will be accompanied by several members of the state parliament. Among other things, the group will visit Kriva Palanka, the twin town of Groß-zimmern in southern Hesse. According to the information, around 100,000 nationals of North Macedonia live in Germany, around 10,000 of them in Hesse.
