VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska said that her opponent Stevo Pendarovski grossly inflated the funds Macedonia stands to receive from the European Union after the expected opening of EU accession talks.

Pendarovski declared that Macedonia will receive 900 million EUR per year, and cashing in on the name change has turned into one of the main planks of the SDSM – DUI platform.

I will dedicate my term in office to joining the EU as soon as possible, but we must not manipulate the citizens with false per-election promises. Opening the accession talks, or even joining the EU, will not represent a miracle which would transform our living standards overnight. Mr. Pendarovski, deliberately or not, mistook 90 million with 900 million. Opening of the accession talks doesn’t mean we receive more than the funding projected until 2027, which means, on average, between 90 and 95 million EUR until 2020 and between 100 and 105 million between 2021 and 2027. Most of the structural funds become available after we join the EU, and not with the accession talks, Siljanovska said.

She called on the ruling coalition candidate to refrain himself from manipulating the public, and said that similar false claims during the failed 2018 referendum only hurt the cause of the EU in Macedonia.