The key to the accession of the Republic of North Macedonia to the EU is the reforms.
This was said by the European ambassador in Skopje, David Geer. Speaking about the constitutional changes, he said he was skeptical that a better compromise could be reached with Bulgaria.
"The new government / by Hristiyan Mickoski, note editor/ expressed very clearly its position regarding the support for Ukraine, it is in line with the previous policy and as I said, it is in full line with the common foreign policy and security policy of membership in EU and NATO. Maybe there are other moves, but we are yet to see that. As for constitutional changes, this issue dominated most of my mandate: there were differences with Bulgaria on how to proceed with the accession process. These were overcome by the July 2022 agreement and this agreement offers a way forward and allows continuity to be found. The new government has made it clear that it is not happy with this agreement and believes it can renegotiate something different. I followed the negotiations closely from autumn 2020 to July 2022. It was a difficult process. Compromises were made on both sides, and my personal opinion is that what was reached in the end was a compromise - not perfect, but it was the best that could be achieved at the time. I am quite skeptical about the possibility of achieving anything better than what has already been achieved. Of course, it is up to the government to try and it is important to sit down with Bulgaria at the right time, but, as I said, given my experience and what has been achieved so far, I am skeptical about such a possibility," Geer said in an interview with "Topic of the day" on Sitel TV.
"If the government wants to start negotiations with Bulgaria, it can do so at any moment," he said, adding that after the elections there will be a new political power there, but stressed that the key to North Macedonia joining the EU is reforms.
"You are not "stuck" because the key to joining the EU is reforms. And nothing stops the government from making reforms. In truth, the government has a very strong majority - a majority that no government has had in recent times, and therefore they can go ahead with the reforms they have set out in their programme. Many of them are in line with the negotiation process. I think now is the time for a vigorous approach to reform. And we are talking about it with the ministers as well, added Geer, whose term as EU ambassador to North Macedonia is coming to an end. | BGNES
