The process of joining the European Union has been Balkanised instead of Europeanised, North Macedonian Prime Minister Christian Mickoski said in a New Year's interview.
He stressed that no politician from Brussels or the world said "no " when the arguments around the constitutional changes were presented. He said that we have to work together with our European partners, but the priority is to solve domestic problems.
"Now Croatia says that Montenegro cannot close this cluster because of this and this. Bulgaria says Serbia cannot for this and that reasons. Everything that started at the time when our southern neighbour was constantly blocking us both in NATO and in the EU on a bilateral issue, that was the name issue and so on, has now slowly but surely turned into practice. Bilateralisation has become a tool, that is to say, instead of us becoming Europeans, the Europeans have become Balkanisers, and that is the biggest problem we have now. In practice, the accession negotiation process has become Balkanised."
According to Mickoski, Sofia does not accept constitutional changes with delayed effect.
"We have consistently maintained that this proposal is not inconsistent with the findings. Tens of thousands of our fellow citizens in the past and hundreds of thousands of Macedonians in Bulgaria cannot even form an NGO, how can we explain this to our citizens here if we accept the changes. We have 14 judgments of the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, we quote parts of the Lisbon Declaration where it is clear what the criteria are for starting negotiations, etc.", said Mickoski.
Mickoski is ready to meet with senior Sofia officials in 2025, talk to them anywhere on this topic and look at all options because, as he pointed out, both sides need to agree. | BGNES
