The case of North Macedonia is a test whether the Western Balkans can trust the European Union and its promises, according to Minister for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov at the Delphi Economic Forum on Monday. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, at the same panel discussion, said he hoped all EU member countries would soon agree to start negotiations with North Macedonia. Otherwise, he said, the issue of decoupling it from Albania in the membership talks would inevitably be raised.
Speaking at the panel titled “Fulfilling the Long-Awaited Promise,” Minister Dimitrov said the promise of a European perspective for the region given in Thessaloniki in 2003 and again in Sofia in May 2018 was still unfulfilled – even though “all member states reached an unconditional political decision last March that we should start membership negotiations.”
“The vast majority of member states are in favor of holding two intergovernmental conferences with us and Tirana,” Dimitrov said.
“This is our common goal, something we have been working on. Both countries have fulfilled every requirement. The accession process should be based on our achievements, so it is high time we started the accession negotiations.”
“We are the country that has been waiting the longest,” he pointed out. “We signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement after Slovenia did, before Croatia. Both countries have been member states for a long time. We have been a candidate country for 16 years, Albania for six years, and we had many negative precedents during our European saga.”
Asked whether a solution to the dispute with Bulgaria was possible in the next few months — and what the Macedonian government has done to improve the chances for an agreement or whether it was only up to Sofia to decide — Dimitrov said this was the key question.
“This time the stakes are high,” the Minister for European Affairs said. “It is becoming impossible to sustain and keep talking about the European perspective for North Macedonia’s citizens. The stakes are high for the European Union as well because it gave us a promise and not fulfilling promises sends a very negative message.”
“The stakes are the highest for us because we want to start our European journey, but the stakes are high also for Bulgaria and the friendship between the two countries.
“It is in the best interest of our neighbors, who are EU members, for North Macedonia to be in the EU, for them to have a success story in their neighborhood. We should approach the issue from this standpoint and revitalize our engagement with Sofia,” he added.
According to Dimitrov, although Bulgaria has a caretaker government and will hold new parliamentary elections on July 11 and a presidential election in the fall, the EU should not wait to start the negotiations with North Macedonia.
“We do not have the luxury to wait,” he said. “We need to seize the moment, find a way to overcome the obstacles. I see this as either as a “win-win-win” or a “lose-lose-lose” scenario. There is no scenario in which Bulgaria wins and we lose. Either we both win or we both lose. The European Union is in the same predicament.
“We tried with EU Commissioner Várhelyi, previously with the German presidency, now with the Portuguese presidency,” he added. “We still have the opportunity to restore the momentum of the European idea in the Balkans and we must not lose that momentum.”
The minister reiterated that the country made significant strides forward, resolving the 25-year dispute with Greece and signing the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria, which North Macedonia has committed to implementing. “So it is high time we started this journey,” he pointed out.
“As the first person at the Secretariat for European Affairs, I am finding it difficult to talk about the European perspective if the EU does not deliver, because then we cannot deliver to our citizens,” Dimitrov said.
EU Commissioner Várhelyi, in response to a question whether Albania should start negotiations if there is no agreement on Skopje and Tirana starting the talks together, said the EU member states wanted to start the first intergovernmental conferences with both countries.
“We still have a few weeks ahead of us and I hope that in June we will have an agreement for both countries to start the first intergovernmental conferences. But all member states will have to agree first,” Várhelyi said.
He stressed that the process required the consent of all EU member states and added that the EC was working to secure the needed support for both countries.
Asked to comment on his statement on the possible decoupling of Skopje and Tirana, Várhelyi said the statement was pointing out the obvious.
“If we fail to secure an agreement for both countries,” he said, “it is inevitable that the issue will be raised and we will have to come up with an answer.”
