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Skopje – Slovakia is a strong supporter of your country’s Euro-integration and will fully support its accession, as it is the right perspective and the true way to progress. However, the EU cannot just play with the trust of this country because there comes a moment when people will simply stop believing in the EU and may simply say that they do not want to be a member of this club, because after decades of hard investments and painful reforms they will simply not accept it, said the head of the Slovak state Peter Pellegrini at a joint press conference with President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova at Villa Vodno.
The Slovak president criticized the EU for constantly setting new conditions for the country and according to him, the Union is making a big mistake because it will lose the dynamics of enlargement.
– The integration of your country into the EU should not be abused with political disputes and I agree with the indication that the accession process for the country should be based solely on meeting the criteria and no country should abuse that, just to deal with its own issues and thereby slow down your accession process, which is almost a kind of blackmail, emphasized the Slovak president.
He expressed hope that during the visit of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, she would make a more optimistic statement regarding the accession and give hope, as he said, to this country and this people.
In response to a journalist’s question about whether the 2030 deadline for the enlargement of the Western Balkan countries to the EU is realistic, he again said that he wishes for that, but, he says, I believe that the EU is playing with the efforts of this country.
– The EU needs to be aware that this enlargement process is alive and countries like this have the potential to negotiate chapter by chapter, to implement reforms in order to meet the criteria. I am a bit more concerned that the accession of these countries will not be based on their technical level of preparedness, but will only be played as geopolitical games with them and that there will be countries in the EU that will play political games, all in order to obstruct the accession and I believe that if they do that then they will make a huge political mistake and will regret it, he emphasized.
Pellegrini also assessed that the Union is currently facing a crisis, and what is worse is that the EU is no longer seen as one of the most important and strongest economic markets in the world.
Regarding the concept of decisions in the EU being made by qualified majority, Pellegrini said that in that way the voice of smaller states would be lost.
– All of us in the EU have the same voice, and now we are concerned that if we move this process to qualified majority, then it may happen that the big players in the EU will dictate and the smaller ones will not be able to say what needs to be done. That is why we are very cautious here and would prefer to keep the right of veto and also a single voice for each country in order to eliminate the dictation of the big countries, pointed out the Slovak president, who is on an official visit to the country. (October 14, 2025)