Siljanovska Davkova: There must be no double standards for EU membership

Skopje – President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova says that the national consensus she called for in her annual address in Parliament should be built around guarantees that there will be no new conditions in the process of European integration.

– There should be consensus that there must be no double standards for EU membership. There should be consensus that we are record holders for constitutional amendments at the request of the EU, we even changed the name without a consensus, but we did not get even the start of negotiations. There should be consensus that if we invoke principles, they should apply to everyone. If the Council of Europe has established a court for human rights, the rulings must be implemented, said President Siljanovska Davkova in a guest appearance on TV Kanal 5.

We must, she emphasized, once obtain a guarantee that no one will push us to discuss identity issues, because that is a fundamental value of the EU.

– The national consensus should be built around guarantees. We must have some guarantees and there are many variants for guarantees. It is not true that we have not talked, we have talked. It is not only a third protocol, it can be with an amendment to the Protocol, it can be with an amendment to the conclusions. Our precedent is important not only for us, but also for all other candidates for EU membership, said Siljanovska Davkova.

She pointed out that high European representatives have said that guarantees are needed and that the veto should be overturned.

– I claim that even in the case of the Western Balkan states that are most advanced towards membership, it may happen that there is again a veto, the president pointed out.

Siljanovska Davkova assessed that what the former Government accepted and what it inserted into the Negotiating Framework and into the conclusions is contrary to the very principles and values of the EU.

According to President Siljanovska Davkova, any EU member can initiate proceedings against Bulgaria, as she says, for violating the basic principles and values. It can also, she added, be done by one third of the MPs, it can be done by the Commission. There are mechanisms. When you read the reports and when you look at the evaluations, you see that we are assessed for the Green Agenda the same as Moldova, but it receives funds and we do not.

– The EU must find a solution to keep us in shape, because we are not talking only about a more powerful EU in the unstable, uncertain multipolar scene. We are talking, these are not my words, they are those of EU leaders, about resilience to possible influences and about something that is very important – guarantees, meaning the security dilemmas remain, and we see that even with refugee crises they can once again appear on the scene. The EU can find a solution if it wants to, and we are pointing it out to them. Why does it not want to? Because it is practical, pragmatic and because someone agreed. If those who are now proposing resolutions and the like had thought differently and had pointed out what I am saying, then those who were deciding would have taken it into account. But they were convincing them that this is a completely good solution and, let us remember, at that time they were telling us just this one more thing and that’s it, we are starting the negotiations, said Siljanovska Davkova. (25 December 2025)