President Stevo Pendarovski said the European Union leadership and European partners are responsible for delaying the integration process of North Macedonia and Turkey, which have had candidate country status for years.
“Unfortunately, our common European stories are not so successful and good to hear.I would not blame anybody else, but ourselves. However, if you ask me, the naked truth is that some of the blame is shared by our European partners and Brussels,” Pendarovski told Anadolu Agency.
Pendarovski noted that Turkey started full membership negotiations in 2005, but there has been no significant positive development so far.
Similarly, he added, North Macedonia has been waiting for 16-and-a-half years.
“We are not waiting to enter the EU, but to start the negotiations. We have a longstanding dispute with our neighbor Greece and another blockade by our eastern neighbor Bulgaria.
“We can only hope that we start this process soon and in due time become a full member of the EU,” Pendarovski said.
“Because not only geographically, but civilizational, in economic terms, in cultural terms, in any other domain, we are, I mean North Macedonia and Turkey, certainly part of that project named ‘United Europe’.”
Pendarovski said the economic cooperation between North Macedonia and Turkey has stepped up in the past 10 to 12 years.
“Today Turkey is in some of the top 10 investors in the country. The latest statistics show that Turkey is on the sixth place on that top 10 list of the biggest investors in North Macedonia. And the trade volume between our countries is between the fifth and the seventh place on that top 10 list, which means that Turkey is one of the most important investors in the country,” he added.
