The Czech Republic supports the European integration of North Macedonia, reiterated the Czech Minister of Defense Lubomír Metnar at a press conference held with Defense Minister Radmila Shekerinska after their meeting Tuesday. “I do not share Bulgaria’s ideas on history. I want to see North Macedonia join the EU as soon as possible,” Metnar said.
The Czech Republic would like the integration to accelerate, so it has offered its assistance to North Macedonia “because membership in Euro-Atlantic structures will provide stronger security for the entire region,” Metnar said when asked about the possible decoupling of North Macedonia and Albania in the process.
Defense Minister Shekerinska said that even though the current absence of an elected government in Bulgaria could impede North Macedonia’s accession to the EU, it should not shake the nation’s commitment to achieving this goal.
“Neither Europe nor the region nor we can wait for every election to pass. We must do our duty,” Shekerinska said.
She noted that the visit of the Czech delegation led by Defense Minister Metnar was a sign that North Macedonia has done its part, proving it was ready to begin negotiations with the EU.
“We have shown an enormous capacity for dialogue with our neighbors and for finding practical solutions that are agreeable to both sides. No one can doubt our intention to create good neighborly relations and we will assert this every day and on every occasion. We hope Bulgaria will be ready to find a solution as soon as possible so we can move forward,” Shekerinska added.
According to her, the country has been held back over the past 15 years by a status quo.
“We have the political capacity to question this status quo. We have shown we are ready to take steps that have also led us to NATO membership,” the defense minister said, thanking the Czech Republic for its support at EU meetings.
Late last year, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in a joint statement disapproved of the EU Council conclusions on the enlargement process in the Western Balkans.
According to their statement, the draft text “contained elements including the notion of falsifying history that in our view would be hugely detrimental to the enlargement process and could potentially bring about further complications down the road.”
The countries said they would not allow the EU to be the judge of ”our shared history, how we identify ourselves or the language we use.”
“These issues belong to the parties concerned and we are here to support them with the experience of our own healing processes,” the statement said.
