The Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani visited Brussels and Bruges today and met with his Bulgarian counterpart Svetlan Stoev, a day after the elections in Bulgaria, he warned the EU that it is becoming unattractive for the voters in the Western Balkans, MIA reports from Brussels.
This is the answer of the Macedonian Foreign Minister to the question whether without negotiations in December there is a danger for Northern Macedonia and the entire region.
– I think that the problems will start when the EU will not be a winning ticket for the elections, and we are already moving on the path so that the European idea is no longer a winner. “Then is the bad scenario for the whole region, when the nationalist, retrograde rhetoric comes to the surface, then we will have to manage crises instead of the future,” Osmani told MIA.
The Minister participated in a meeting of the six Foreign Ministers of the Western Balkans with students from the College in Bruges where future EU diplomats and officials are being trained.
At the meeting, the Kosovo and Bosnian foreign ministers warned that the region was moving towards destabilization and a possible new civil war.
However, the Macedonian Minister said in a more moderate tone that the fact that three countries in the region are now members of NATO brings stability.
– We are following with concern the developments in Bosnia and on the Kosovo-Serbian border. However, the fact that three countries in the region are members of NATO gives as much confidence in that process, but we must be careful. But I think the disruption of the EU’s credibility in the region adds fuel to this potential, latent fire, but Osmani adds that he does not believe in conflict as in the XNUMXs.
The Foreign Minister told MIA that the meeting with the Bulgarian Minister gave the impression that the two sides are moving towards a more predictable phase in relations.
– We exchanged views on the dynamics in the two countries that were turbulent in the last period, with the feeling that the two countries are entering into a predictability after the elections, which provides an opportunity for a more focused approach in terms of finding a solution. “Efforts between the two ministries will have to continue in the coming days, in the expectation that a political government will be formed in Bulgaria soon, which according to them is still an important moment for finding a solution,” Osmani told MIA, but no one, he said, could to guarantee nothing, and Northern Macedonia, instructed by disappointments, remains vigilant.
“Even without a new government in Bulgaria, talks and even a solution are technically and legally possible,” he said.
– Legally there is a possibility, especially in conditions when we will have an elected president next week, but a lot will depend on the composition of that government, the views of the different parties in that government. In any case, what I feel in Brussels is that the alarm is sounded everywhere from Brussels to all parts of Europe in terms of finding a solution this year. That alarm is also being heard in Washington. No one can guarantee how much it will bear fruit, thinks the Minister.
Osmani says that one of those alarms is the information that came out last week that the French President, Emmanuel Macron, said that the negotiations with Skopje and Tirana must start by December 31 at the latest.
– That is why I said that the alarm is heard in the capitals, especially in Western Europe, to find a solution before the end of this year, such is the information that the commitment is to make every effort by the end of this year. We are also in that dynamic, but after so many disappointments in the past, no one can guarantee with certainty, but we work as if the next step is December, he added.
However, for Northern Macedonia there is no and will not be an alternative to the EU, repeats Osmani:
– Plan B does not exist either geographically or politically or from any aspect. We are part of Europe, we will be part of the EU. I do not want to justify these slow steps towards Europe in terms of enlargement, but let us take the examples of Spain, which has waited 25 years for membership since the day of its application, or Great Britain, which has twice been rejected and has waited decades for membership. . We will have to endure that path because we have no alternative. Of course, we will have alternative plans to the goal, but not an alternative for the EU, says Osmani.
Regarding the internal political crisis, Osmani said that the current governing coalition “should continue to stabilize the strategic directions of the country, when that is achieved then it is easy for all solutions.”
He added that it would be good for Zoran Zaev to remain at the head of that government, but that in the end it is his decision.
DUI, for its part, does not feel threatened.
– DUI confirmed the legitimacy of the Albanian people, the only party that had an increase in votes in these elections and I think that in any constellation it will be in some way the helmsman of the Euro-Atlantic processes in the country, adds Osmani.
Source: Sloboden Pecat
