The decision to change the constitution is a sovereign decision of the government (of North Macedonia) and is very important. However, the process is quite clear and can be immediate. EU membership has no alternative and enlargement is the most successful policy of the Union. The Council conclusions of July 2022 on North Macedonia clearly state that the country must accept the constitutional amendments and, once they are accepted, the intergovernmental conference on Cluster 1 will start automatically.
This was stated by the new EU ambassador Mihalis Rokas in an interview with MIA, BGNES reports.
This is his first interview since taking up his new duties in the country last month.
"The only goal in my mandate is to help the country enter the EU as quickly as possible," he stressed.
Rokas pointed out that there is no alternative to EU membership and that enlargement is the Union's most successful policy.
"Enlargement is a unanimous process, we all know this proposal of the government (to postpone the inclusion of Bulgarians in the Macedonian constitution, ed.) . My humble opinion is that it is unlikely to be accepted because, as I explained earlier, there is an EU position of 27 members on this. So, of course, it is important to make sure that we are aware of this context," Rokas said.
"The decision on the constitutional changes is a sovereign decision of the government and it is very important, we have great respect for how the government wants to proceed and the solutions it wants to achieve, but the process is very clear and can be immediate. It is important that all candidates show full commitment to EU accession. This includes North Macedonia", the Ambassador continued.
To a journalist's question on the separation of North Macedonia and Albania on the path to the EU, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's offer to mediate in the negotiations between Skopje and Sofia, the EU representative said the following:
"You will allow me not to comment on opinions, statements of member states, that is not my role. But what I can tell you are the facts - and that is that in July 2022 accession negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia started, and then the screening process started. The Council conclusions of July 2022 on North Macedonia clearly state that the country must accept the constitutional amendments and, once they are accepted, the intergovernmental conference on Cluster 1 will automatically begin. Enlargement is now definitely on the EU agenda. We (the EU) believe that this is the moment not to miss this opportunity."
Rokas also commented on the Skopje government's concerns that "Bulgaria may decide to set new conditions" to admit North Macedonia to the EU:
"I will come back to what the enlargement process means - which is that it is based on unanimity. We have to be aware of the fact that unanimity is needed in the whole process, from the moment the negotiations start until the very end, when your country becomes an EU member. So, in theory, when there is no progress in the reforms or in the implementation of the Copenhagen criteria, or the EU legislation with it, one or other Member States can object to certain parts of the negotiations, either at the end or in the middle of the negotiations."
The ambassador added that despite these difficulties, there have been "six rounds of EU enlargement since the beginning of the EU with a different number of countries, despite the obstacles, despite the difficulties, despite the disappointments, despite the long process that took more time, the countries became members of the EU".
"I think we have to bear that in mind, but also be fully aware of what the process involves. And that presupposes the unanimity and support of the 27 EU members throughout the process," he added. | BGNES
