English
Joining the European Union remains our strategic goal, and there is no shift in that regard—stated Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski in response to a parliamentary question from Arbana Pasholi of the DUI led European Front regarding the Government’s strategy to unblock the European integration process and open negotiation chapters.
“The European Union remains our strategic goal, and there is not a millimeter of deviation from that. We want to both start and complete this process—as we have said many times in the past—not merely begin it. You can see how the rhetoric in Parliament is gradually changing from session to session, month to month, and year to year; whereas you yourselves once claimed this was a solution for membership, you now say it is a solution for the start of negotiations—which is correct; this is indeed a solution for the start of negotiations,” Mickoski said, talking about the Bulgarian demand that Macedonia must amend its Constitution.
He emphasized that the Government is engaged in a dialogue with Bulgaria and offered to have the opposition directly involved in the process.
“Regarding this dialogue we are conducting with Bulgaria—by all means, as a united opposition comprising several political parties, propose representatives to join the team conducting this dialogue with our eastern neighbor. We will absolutely respect that,” the Prime Minister emphasized. In his response, he assessed that the current situation is a consequence of the policies of the previous SDSM and DUI government. According to Mickoski, the Government is currently working to shift the perception held by European partners and to create an opening to unblock the process.
“That process is slow, but it is happening, and that is the reality,” he said, adding that these changes are evident in the recent contacts between the foreign ministers of Macedonia and Bulgaria, as well as in meetings with European Commissioner Marta Kos.
The Prime Minister announced that the next step would be to finalize the action plan on minorities—a document that, as he noted, has been accepted by 26 European Union member states but not by Bulgaria. “Why is this action plan on minorities important? Even if you were to decide tomorrow to amend the Constitution in the manner previously agreed upon, that alone would not be enough to resume negotiations, because we also need to have an agreed-upon action plan on minorities. Therefore, our first step will be to finalize that action plan,” the Prime Minister said, reiterating that the opposition has also been invited to participate in the dialogue.