Prime Minister Zoran Zaev went all in on the European Union accession talks and the gamble failed. Even before the Prespa treaty, Zaev claimed that he has secured a date to open accession talks in June 2019, and even did a now much ridiculed airplane selfie to celebrate it. June came and went without a date, but Zaev had another assurance for the public – he now has written guarantees from the EU that the talks will begin in October 2019.
It’s October. It will be October. It says “no later than October”. We received a formal, legal, written guarantee, Zaev said in June.
The press remembered. During his conference on Saturday, after the defeat in Brussels, Zaev was asked if he is going to “activate” the written guarantee.
I said written guarantees?, was his response.
But, more seriously, while he can’t pressure the EU to approve the opening of EU accession talks, Zaev talked about the guarantees included in the Prespa treaty.
If I did says something about written guarantees, it is the guarantee in the Prespa treaty. Europe is built in the treaty because it worked with us on it, he said.
This was seen as a nod in the direction of an article contained in the Prespa treaty which ties domestic implementation and use of the name “North Macedonia” with opening EU accession talks.
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