The leaders of the four then largest political parties, together with President Boris Trajkovski and the EU and the US representatives, 21 years ago in Ohrid signed the Framework Agreement that prevented the further escalation of the conflict and brought peace and stability as prerequisites for further democratic development of the Macedonian society, President Stevo Pendarovski wrote in the message on the 21st anniversary of the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement.

As Pendarovski points out, the key benefits of the agreement were the preservation of sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the unitary character of the state. With it, as he says, the foundations were laid for constitutional and legislative changes that guarantee the rights of the less numerous ethnic communities.

In the past 21 years, among other things, through the implementation of the Framework Agreement, we became a member of NATO, and we received candidate status and opened negotiations with the European Union. In that process, we built a model of a functional multi-ethnic democracy that preserves peace and stability and set the highest standards for the rights of communities, writes Pendarovski.