We should look at this blockade as an obstacle on the road that should mobilize us so that we can continue to restore confidence in the process and overcome this obstacle. There is no alternative to the European path and to good neighbourly relations, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said Tuesday after laying fresh flowers at the National and University Library’s St. Clement of Ohrid monument.
“We will continue to work with the Republic of Bulgaria because today is the Republic of Bulgaria, tomorrow will be another member state that will dispute another issue. We must get used to the fact that this process requires a lot of talks, diplomacy and persistence and we must not give up at any point in the process,” Osmani underlined.
“We will continue and I assure you that we will reach the ultimate goal, to become EU member,” Osmani said.
“We are discussing issues arising from the Treaty on Good Neighborliness” he said, announcing that talks would continue along those lines, but that identity issues were not being negotiated.
“The Republic of North Macedonia has clean report in regard to fulfillment of the criteria to start EU accession negotiations. A typical example of the conditionality that is introduced in this process was the so-called merit-based conditionality. Unfortunately, this opportunity was not used to give this clean report a chance to start negotiations, to be an example for other countries that have aspirations on this path,” Osmani said.
According to Osmani, this is one of the most complex and difficult processes for the country and we must not see these obstacles as impenetrable walls, but, as obstacles on the road.
“We think we are convinced of the importance of this path for all of us and absolutely no one thinks about giving up, nor thinks about an alternative. This is an obstacle on the road that we will overcome very quickly,” he underlined.
The process will be discussed today during online meeting of the General Affairs Council he said, adding that online meetings are usually informal, which means that no decision can be reached, i.e., the decision must be harmonized in advance if a formal decision is reached during online meeting.
However, there is theoretical possibility that European Council will return to the issue at its meeting on Thursday although the chances are slim as the more time goes by, Osmani said.
He assessed the first 100 days in office as very good. First, as he said, because the communication has intensified regarding the overcoming of the differences, despite the fact that, it may not give results for the time being, but it has created the framework and grounds the talks to continue.
“The other two successes that I consider to be important in 100 days, taking over the OSCE chairmanship and membership in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, are still important country’s foreign policy achievements only in 100 days in power,” he said.
Osmani agreed that this moment today unfortunately happened between two election processes, our election process in July and, as he said, their process scheduled for March. He expected that emotions will reduce by these election processes which always jeopardize rhetoric, politics and public discourse in any society.
“We have made huge steps in finding the right formulations to overcome certain differences, which should continue to be discussed. Our positions are clear. We do not need to repeat once again the issues of identity, the issues of identity attributes that arise from the right to self-determination are not a topic of discussion. If there is anything good in this process, it is that Bulgaria has made it clear for the first time that it does not aspire to those issues. We have reached other formulations regarding other issues. Now we need to upgrade it to a full understanding so that the process can continue. I understand anger as I have been working on this issue for a long time and I wanted to have a breakthrough today. But we must not, with that limited logic, enter the process of achieving our strategic goal,” Osmani said.
He urged historians to continue to talk to jointly find ways on various historical issues.
“And there are other issues that we have overcome in the part of the short name, hate speech as well as in the part of the issue of minorities and of the economic cooperation. All this is a potential to further build on an understanding between the two countries,” Osmani said.
