I am glad to be here and that I am able to say a few words in Macedonian. Lately, there have been signals from Brussels that point to difficulties and I condemn this, because I still believe in the swift accession of your country in the EU.

I have only one goal, and that is to help your country join the EU as soon as possible, Member of European Parliament (MEP) Jorgo Chatzimarkakis addressed Friday's press conference in Macedonian language.

The German MEP of Greek descent, who co-chairs the Macedonia-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, said the country registered progress in all areas, which has been noted in the European Commission report.

"In general, the EC report is positive. Progress has been noted in all chapters, more in some, less in others. The truth is that the country is moving forward, and we are here to keep this up and help you", stressed Chatzimarkakis.

Chatzimarkakis stressed he would convey to the EC the Macedonian Parliament's resolution, which protests the failure to use adjective "Macedonian" in the last three Commission reports, hoping this would be corrected in the next report.

"At the Joint Parliamentary Committee we supported the amendment noting the Parliament's Resolution over the absence of term 'Macedonian' in the EC Progress Report. This adjective was used until 2009, but has been missing in the last three reports. We expect the Commission to note the negative perception by your citizens, taking it into consideration when preparing next year's report", added the German MEP.

The meeting also focused on the Ohrid Framework Agreement implementation, cultural diversity, reforms in public administration and fight against corruption, civil society and media freedom, eurozone crisis and effects on the Western Balkan region, especially due to the situation in Greece. Transport corridors and the use of European funds for their realization were also tackled.

At yesterday's meeting with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, MEP Chatzimarkakis congratulated the country's 20. independence anniversary and the Ohrid accord 10. anniversary, but also the fact there is no other EU candidate or member state which has such enormous Union support of 90 percent.

"There are many EU member-states that dream of such high support", he added.

Asked if he would suffer consequences in Greece due to his address in Macedonian language, Chatzimarkakis said he was not afraid since a lot of people in Greece speak Macedonian and have no problems, adding "I expect more problems in Bulgaria, since my pronunciation might resemble the Bulgarian one".

"There are many people in Greece who speak Macedonian and there are no problems with the language, which is named Macedonian. One of the former foreign ministers proposed it is called Macedonian", underlined Chatzimarkakis.