For Macedonia, this should be a moment to sober up, also for the opposition. Burning documents in the plenary chamber, pushing people to violence, and inciting hatred bring nothing, only damage, Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi told EURACTIV in an interview.

He said the “will for enlargement is back, we’re ready to move fast”.

The news portal writes that after Skopje resolved a long-running dispute with neighbouring EU member Bulgaria, Albania is expected to start accession negotiations immediately. Regarding Macedonia, it will first need to change its constitution to include Bulgarians among the other nation-building nations listed in it, for which it does not have the necessary consensus in parliament.

This prompted the nationalist opposition to stage days of protests in Skopje, which Várhelyi said crossed the basic democratic red lines.

For Macedonia, this should be a moment to sober up, also for the opposition. Burning documents in the plenary chamber, pushing people to violence, and inciting hatred bring nothing, only damage. There are very clear limits to the European way of doing politics, very clear limits to civilised politics, and my assessment is that many of those red lines were passed by the opposition, he added.

At the same time, he pointed out that “Albania has shown true solidarity with Macedonia and maturity in understanding that our member states wanted the two countries to go ahead“ but said Albania could now proceed on its own.

The whole enlargement process is merit-based, and now the race is on, whoever delivers first, should be eligible to join first, Várhelyi clarified.

What is important is that if they deliver fast, we are ready to move fast as well, (…) and since we are in charge now, finally, speed is going to be much, much different, he said, adding that the Commission had started the screening procedure right after member states gave the green light last week.