President Stevo Pendarovski has said he isn’t satisfied with the country’s EU integration process so far since it has only recently started the negotiations to join the bloc after being at the threshold for 17 years as a candidate for EU membership.

We were practically forgotten by the European Union and with a series of blackmails in the meantime, somehow we managed to make some sort of compromise with the Republic of Bulgaria, with the help of the French presidency, and start negotiations. However, if you look back, we have had a candidate status since 2005, if you are just now starting negotiations, no one can say that we have had great success in that regard, said Pendarovski in an interview with the Anadolu Agency on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between Macedonia and Turkey.

According to the president, the wait is not so much due to the lack of reforms, but also to open roadblocks. He also claims that “several European countries were not interested in the Balkan region”. He reminds that Montenegro and Serbia have been negotiating for EU membership for ten years, but also that all the countries of the Western Balkans are waiting to advance towards the European Union.

As a consequence of this situation, according to him, young people from all over the Balkans are migrating, adding that no country today has anywhere near as many inhabitants as it had 20-30 years ago.

Asked in the context of the constitutional amendments resulting from the bilateral Protocol signed with Bulgaria, he is skeptical that the current opposition in the Parliament is in the mood to vote for the constitutional amendments. Pendarovski believes that there is no danger to the Macedonian identity and language in the documents signed so far, and that the opposition’s position is imposed by internal party logic.

Pendarovski says he believes that it will be quite hard to secure 2/3 majority in incumbent Parliament to pass constitutional changes.