French Ambassador to Macedonia Christian Thimonier bluntly explained why the country can’t expect French approval to get a date to open EU accession talks, when he pointed to rampant corruption and partisan influences over the public administration.

Thimonier asked why is everybody pushing on a date to open EU accession talks given all the problems, and continued to point out to a list including the actions of the Mayor of Struga, the danger that UNESCO revokes its World heritage status for the Ohrid region, the way school principals are appointed, and numerous other examples of malfunctions in the Macedonian society. He said that Macedonia should not be isolated from the EU, but it can’t expect to get an easy pass, and noted that previous times, when unearned enlargement was approved, was as a mistake.