Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov said Monday on TV Telma that if the blocking of the start of Macedonia’s EU accession negotiations continues, then it would be good to focus on the reform agenda at home and wait for the EU to find a European solution that will not interfere in Macedonian identity issues.

We will talk as long as there is minimal room for some success, but we will not talk about issues that are not up for discussion. Our position is crystal clear. If the Macedonian language is an obstacle for the first international conference, then okay, let there be no conference. In October we received a report on how far we’ve come and how ready we are for membership. The reports are comparable in the region. This year we are first in terms of democracy, democratic institutions, media, rule of law. This means that the accession process itself does not work wonders. If the EU continues like this, we do not know how it will continue, it would be nice to focus on the reform agenda at home, regardless if there will be negotiations. And to invite member states to help us from outside. For example, a country that is a leader in the rule of law, let’s invite it to help us in judicial reforms. It will be bad if we get into some desperation of endless waiting. We must keep the reform condition. So that we are in shape when the EU provides a European solution, says Dimitrov.