North Macedonia’s President Gordana Siljanovska said that the country’s European integration and the conditions for opening accession negotiations cannot be described simultaneously as a bilateral issue with Bulgaria and as a matter between the European Union and North Macedonia. One of the conditions is the inclusion of Bulgarians in the country’s Constitution.

In an interview with TV Sitel, Siljanovska explained that Skopje considers the issue bilateral because, regarding the Action Plan on the rights of minorities and communities, and before that as well, no other country besides Bulgaria had raised objections. She noted that nobody had threatened to veto the process and that the need for a merit-based assessment had instead been emphasized.

“Bulgaria says that the issue is not bilateral and that we are dealing with the EU. And Ms von der Leyen says: you must talk and exchange different positions through dialogue. So now, you cannot characterize the problem as both bilateral and an issue with the EU,” the president said.

Siljanovska also said that the protocols with Bulgaria are part of the conclusions of the Council of the European Union, but in her view they are not part of North Macedonia’s negotiating framework. She stressed that a bilateral treaty cannot be changed through a protocol signed by two ministers, and questioned whether including such documents in the conclusions is consistent with the rule of law.

According to Siljanovska, this is why Thomas Waitz, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for North Macedonia, asked the European Council’s legal service to give an opinion on the nature of the protocols. She said it was necessary to clarify their role, whether they form part of the negotiating framework and to what extent they can be used as grounds for blocking the process. She linked the issue to the need for predictability for North Macedonia.

The president said she could not guarantee that the constitutional amendments would be adopted. They must be approved by the North Macedonian parliament with a two-thirds majority. Siljanovska said lawmakers represent citizens and vote according to their own convictions, as in every European parliament.

Responding to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s statement that there is no threat to Macedonian identity, Siljanovska said the negotiating framework contains Bulgaria’s unilateral declaration concerning the language in North Macedonia. She noted that the EU says there is no problem with that language, but questioned why such a declaration had been included in the framework if there was no concern about identity.

“What is history if not identity? What is culture if not identity? I put it this way: political leaders come and go. I am interested in the documents,” Siljanovska said.

During her visit to Skopje at the end of the previous week, Ursula von der Leyen advised Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to seek a meeting with Bulgaria’s foreign minister during an upcoming meeting in Sofia devoted to Railway Corridor 8. The aim would be to try to restore North Macedonia’s path toward negotiations with the EU.

Mickoski said his country wanted to join the European Union, while believing that the process now needed stronger political support from all European institutions. Von der Leyen said North Macedonia belonged in the EU and that only one decisive step remained: constitutional changes that would allow the country to move forward and open the first negotiating cluster.

The European Commission president also said that Europe would welcome North Macedonia with its identity and language. In her words, Macedonian culture and the Macedonian language could enrich the Union, whose motto is unity in diversity.

Source: dariknews.bg