Officials offered different explanations after Macedonia was left out of the EU public health emergency program that distributes over half a billion EUR. Neighboring countries such as Albania, Greece and Serbia, as well as Montenegro and Croatia were included in the program, but Macedonia was not.

Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU integration Nikola Dimitrov insisted that this is due to the “quality and timely management of state finances in the healthcare sector” because of which the EU found that Macedonia does not need to be included in this assistance program. The EU Embassy in Macedonia told the MIA news agency that “Macedonia did not meet the eligibility criteria at the time of application”. And Zaev’s adviser Edmond Ademi, in a since deleted tweet, insisted that the media criticizing the Government over this latest EU snub are engaging in “drama”. He added that “Macedonia would only have gotten 750,000 EUR anyway” and to qualify, it would have needed to spend 30 million EUR for emergency medical needs – while it only spent 7 million.

The funds given to other countries are not remarkable – Serbia got 12 million EUR, Albania just under a million and Montenegro – under 200,000 EUR. Countries like Germany and France are on the list, earmarked for 29 and 91 million EUR respectively. But for the Zaev Government it’s a new, painful snub. After going all in on EU integration, accepting numerous national humiliations for the sake of joining the EU, Zaev was not allowed to open EU accession talks. His 2018 name change campaign even included a promise that, if the people support the imposed name change, Macedonians will be allowed to seek free medical treatment across Europe and – access to the best quality vaccines available. And now, Zaev is unable to purchase any Western produced vaccines, and even attempts to deal with Eastern manufacturers are collapsing – while countries like Serbia who play both sides are awash in vaccines from all manufacturers. Losing out on even symbolic financial assistance is proving as another blow for the regime.