The opening of North Macedonia’s accession negotiations will either be a joint success or a joint failure for Brussels, Sofia and Skopje, says Deputy PM for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov.
Deputy PM Dimitrov told Kanal 5 TV it is very important what kind of message the EU is sending to the whole region.
“What message is being sent to the Balkans if a decision to start negotiations is made in March and nothing else happens by December. Trust in EU’s word will diminish further. This is not a good message for our neighbors. If one looks into all the reports, it is a fact there is hope in EU’s eyes that our story will be a success, despite all of our faults, and that we will be become an EU member. This is how we are perceived in many member-states,” says Dimitrov.
He adds that Bulgaria also invested in this, especially when it held the EU Presidency, and has also been reaffirmed in many speeches of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, when they were assuring other member-states over the need to give a green light for the accession negotiations.
The Deputy PM says Germany is working intensively on finding a solution for the start of North Macedonia’s accession negotiations during Berlin’s EU Presidency.
“We should find European solutions, we must move towards Europe with European solutions. This is not the final COREPER meeting, we will see what happens in the coming days. North Macedonia is fully committed to the Euro-integration process and the Friendship Treaty,” notes Dimitrov.
