Speaking about Macedonia’s European integration and the condition that Bulgarians be included in the Constitution, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski said in an interview with Radio Television Serbia (RTS) that it is good for other nations to be included as our country is Europe in miniature. In the EU, he emphasizes, there are countries that have 25 parts of nations in their constitutions.

What we have as an obligation this time, which in fact a large number of countries also have, is a constitutional adjustment with Macedonia having another additional activity, which is the inclusion of parts of other peoples who live in our country and here such interest has been expressed by the Croatian, Montenegrin and Bulgarian people, as well as others such as the Jewish people. I think that is good because there are countries in the EU that have 25 parts of nations in their constitution. We already have other nations, such as Serbian, Vlach, Albanian, Roma… We are a multicultural and multi-ethnic society, I always say that Macedonia is Europe in miniature because the EU is a community of diversity, and Macedonia is a country where all communities and peoples have equal opportunities for personal and professional people, Kovacevski says in the interview.

In the interview, Kovacevski points out that Macedonia probably had the most difficult road to the start of the negotiations and recalls the agreement reached with Greece, as well as the Good Neighborly Agreement with Bulgaria. However, he emphasizes that now all open questions are closed and that we have a pure Macedonian language and a guaranteed identity of the Macedonian people.

He said that the fact that 17 years have passed since receiving candidate status until the first intergovernmental conference has reduced the credibility of the EU in the country, but that the majority of citizens are still in favor of joining the Union. For our membership, just like for Serbia and Albania, says the Prime Minister, there is no alternative.

In the coming days, as he announced, everything that will be required to be done in the screening process, which officially begins on September 15, will be presented.

In the interview, Kovacevski also talks about the relations with Serbia, saying that the fact that there is not a single open political issue between Belgrade and Skopje and the positive relations between the politicians had a positive impact on the relations between the church institutions in the two countries and contributed to solving the decades-long dispute between the SOC and MOC-OA.