North Macedonia – Visit by Laurence Boone, Minister of State for Europe, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs (July 17-18, 2023)

Laurence Boone, Minister of State for Europe, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, will be visiting North Macedonia on July 17 and 18 with her German counterpart, Anna Lührmann, and her Polish counterpart, Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk.

This visit, which comes one year after the first EU-North Macedonia Intergovernmental Accession Conference on July 19, 2022, follows on from the Minister of State’s visit to Skopje last November and is aimed at underscoring France and the EU’s full support for North Macedonia’s integration into the EU.

Ms. Boone will meet with the President of North Macedonia, the Macedonian Prime Minister, and the Minister for European Affairs, as well as the parliamentary president and members of parliamentary groups from both the majority and the opposition to discuss the next steps of North Macedonia’s accession process and the reforms that must be undertaken to enter the active phase of membership negotiations.

Ukraine – France condemns Russian strikes against Ukraine (July 13, 2023)

France utterly condemns the latest round of Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine, which left several people wounded.

While Ukraine has been courageously defending itself for more than 500 days in the war of aggression waged by Russia, these Russian strikes deliberately targeted the civilian population – another flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

As Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna has repeatedly emphasized, these unacceptable acts are war crimes and cannot go unpunished. In close coordination with its partners, France will continue to provide Ukraine with the aid it needs to ensure its legitimate defense. It will also continue its support for the Ukrainian courts and the International Criminal Court to combat impunity for crimes committed by Russia.