EnglishDuring his visit to Washington, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski spoke at the Atlantic Council, a leading foreign policy and defense organization, that runs a project on the Balkans. In his remarks, Mickoski spoke about the frustration Macedonians feel after being left out of the EU integration for decades, because of narrow interests by our neighboring countries.
Frustration among the citizens of my country is extremely big. I witnessed it, in 2018 when I was in the opposition, a lot of people from all over the world visited us, a lot of high EU officials, Prime Ministers of very powerful nations and countries, Presidents, EU commission officials, and they said to us, just change your name and since you’re front-runners, immediately you will become part of NATO and start negotiations with EU, and you will end your negotiations within a period of 4-5 years and become a part of EU. Those 4-5 years expired two years ago, and we are in the same situation we were 20 years ago, but in the meantime we changed our flag, Constitution, currency, name, everything. And now again we have a hurdle in front of us, we have to change our Constitution again. And you can imagine how citizens are frustrated, Mickoski said before describing the dispute with Bulgaria which is currently blocking Macedonia. Regarding the minority issue raised by Bulgaria, Mickoski said that the legitimate institution to determine such matters is the European Court of Human Rights. Macedonian groups in Bulgaria have won over a dozen cases at that court for violations of their right to assembly and to organize.
The Prime Minister said that he is working to develop Macedonia into a crossroad of the region, with the road and high speed rail projects that are being implemented. He particularly noted the construction of gas pipelines, like the one that should connect the LNG terminal in the Greek port of Alexandropouli and should continue through Macedonia to Serbia, offering an alternative to Russian gas.
Mickoski also noted the major investment potential in renewable energy, such as the planned Cebren and Galiste hydro plants. He welcomed the close cooperation with the US Embassy in Macedonia in the fight against corruption, for which he said that reforms in the judiciary will be necessary.
