The Ohrid agreement withstood the challenge of time, but its spirit must be preserved even more, says the former EU ambassador in Skopje, Erwan Fouéré. In an interview with Alsat, he says that policies should be implemented in the interest of the whole society, not just a certain ethnic group. On this occasion, he mentioned employment in the administration and integrated multicultural education. Regarding Prespa and the Good Neighborly Agreement with Bulgaria, Fouéré says that he is surprised that Skopje and the EU did not ensure reciprocity in the case of Bulgaria.

Those were hard “pills” for the Macedonian citizens to swallow and I think this proves the determination of the citizens and the state to carry out and achieve the main political goals. A lot will depend on the implementation and how the EU will approach this, focusing specifically on the Good Neighborly Agreement with Bulgaria because unfortunately we have seen that as far as implementation is concerned, Bulgaria behaved more like a colonial power than an EU member. I must say that I am a little surprised, for example, by the government’s obligation to make constitutional changes to recognize the existence of the Bulgarian community in the country. I am surprised that there is no resistance from the government to ensure reciprocity on this issue because we all know that Bulgaria continues to refuse to recognize and implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the recognition of the Macedonian community in Bulgaria. Therefore, this will remain a divisive issue in Macedonian society and that is understandable. Also the issue that now some parts of the Good Neighborly Agreement are part of the negotiating framework and I think that really creates a new unprecedented situation in the enlargement process. Precisely because of the lack of reciprocity for the recognition of the communities in Macedonia and Bulgaria, I think it is shameful that the EU allowed this to happen because what is the purpose of this court if its decisions are not respected, he said.