English
The European Parliament today adopted its report on Macedonia, and it includes an article that calls on the historic commission between Macedonia and Bulgaria to reach agreement on a joint reading of history.
This article, which rapproteur Thomas Waitz tried to remove from the text, is seen as an indication that Bulgaria will raise its numerous historic issues with Macedonia as soon as its current demand – ammending the Constitution to include the Bulgarian minority – is met. The vote on this article was 338 against 126, in favor of keeping it in the text.
If Europe wants to maintain its credibility it should correct the injustice it made against Macedonia. I think that the European Parliament should support the ammendment that notes the progress that was made, but also to remove the bilateral protocols from the negotiating framework. I encourage and ask the members of the European Parliament to stick to the European values as defined by Schuman, Adenauer and De Gasperi, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski shortly before the vote.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that a lot of the blame lies with the previous Macedonian Government that accepted to negotiate in this way, “as we were governed by mediocre politicians who did damage to our country and our citizens”.
The debate in Brussels was dominated by the incident a few days ago when two vehicles owned by the Bulgarian Embassy and parked on a busy street in front of the building were splashed with liquid and set on fire. The culprit was quickly arrested, and Prime Minister Mickoski said that the investigation will focus on his communications, to determine who he was in touch with before deciding to cause this incident. Mickoski strongly condemned the event and urged Bulgaria to refrain from qualifying the incident.
The vote came on the 8th anniversary of the signing of the imposed Prespa Treaty that changed the name of Macedonia. Mickoski said that “at the time we were promised by the European bureaucrats that we will have massive gains, a free and better healthcare, education, more funding for the young, that we will join NATO and open EU accession talks immediately, but, except for the NATO membership, nothing of what was promised happened”.
Taught by these lessons from the past, now we conduct a foreign policy that is not based on shining the shoes of Euro-diplomats in Brussels and being on our knees, but a policy based on arguments. We fight and we are creating friends. This is not a sprint but a marathon, said the Prime Minister.