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Mickoski: The process cannot be successfully completed if the bilateral talks relate to identity issues

by AI | 20.Dec 2024 | Europe in brief AI

Mickoski said that “an influential prime minister of a country” stated that even in 2004, when there was a large wave of EU enlargement, it could be said that none of those countries that became members met the criteria according to the chapters, according to the clusters. However, the prime minister, as Mickoski said, pointed out that there was a brave political decision to close the package, or rather, for all those countries to become EU members.

The President of the EU Council, Antonio Costa, and the President of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, welcome the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, before the start of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Brussels. Photo: EBS

Skopje – Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced from Brussels yesterday that anyone who raises the subject of identity issues does not have good intentions toward the neighbor and respects European values even less. The two agreements state that member states should support us unconditionally. Macedonia does not dispute anything with anyone and we do not want others to dispute us, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said from Brussels yesterday. Bulgaria’s acting Prime Minister Dimitar Gladiyev said yesterday that any dialogues can be conducted, but Bulgaria’s position has not changed.

Mickoski, who participated in the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Brussels, emphasized in an interview for MTV that bilateral cooperation is crucial when talking about economic cooperation, tourism, the exchange of know-how skills, education, etc., and that this process has added value.

– If bilateral discussions and negotiations are brought to identity issues, then that process can never end successfully because it is connected with emotion, not with rationality. Any process connected with emotion cannot be a process that is based on progress, quality, and delivery of results. Therefore, I asked that emotional bilateral issues be left aside and that the agreements be read correctly. Both agreements say that member states, which are the second party—Greece in one and Bulgaria in the other—should support us unconditionally. Nowhere in the Good Neighborliness Agreement does it state the part that binds us to constitutional changes. It is necessary to view things correctly, to look truth in the eye, and not as it suits us, said Prime Minister Mickoski, adding that bilateral cooperation should exist where there is logic, while bilateral cooperation involving identity issues is out of the question.

Mickoski said that an “influential prime minister of a country” stated that in 2004, when there was a major wave of EU expansion, it can be said that none of the countries that became members met the criteria according to the chapters, according to the clusters. However, the prime minister, as Mickoski said, pointed out that there was a brave political decision to wrap up the package, meaning that all those countries became members of the EU. 

– Therefore, I now expect that conditions will be created for a bold decision by the EU to allow all Western Balkan countries to be collectively accepted into the EU, emphasized Mickoski. (December 20)