VMRO-DPMNE deputy President Aleksandar Nikoloski warned against the option that the Zaev Government deliberately sabotages Macedonia’s EU accession, in order to help Albania.

Macedonia is being denied a date to open EU accession talks for the second year in a row and that is the sad truth. Last year I warned about the agreement between the Zoran Zaev and Edi Rama governments, put in place by Bujar Osmani and then Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati, to create an EU accession group of Macedonia and Albania. An element of this agreement is to slow down reforms in Macedonia so that it doesn’t get ahead of Albania in 2018. This is the greatest error Macedonian diplomacy has ever made, Nikoloski says.

With the promised June date slipping out of reach, some in Zaev’s regime, like President Stevo Pendarovski are now calling for decoupling of the two countries, which has drawn an angry response from Tirana.

Rama asks Pendarovski to remember who had him elected President, after he calls for the “decoupling” of Macedonia from Albania

Macedonia was denied a date to open EU accession talks despite signing the shameful Prespa treaty in 2018. Now we lose the date for 2019. When I raised this issue, I was told that I’m spreading sci-fi stories. Well, it doesn’t look as fiction now. This ill thought through move by Zaev and Osmani, and the crime, corruption and economic backsliding has cost Macedonia two years! We mustn’t waste any more time, Nikoloski adds.