site.btaUPDATED VMRO-DPMNE's Presidential Candidate Wants Guarantee that Bulgarian Veto Can Only Happen Based on Implementation of Copenhagen Criteria

In two interviews in recent days Gordana Siljanovska, the presidential candidate for North Macedonia, nominated by VMRO-DPMNE, presented her thesis that through a resolution, an agreement, an annex or another act regarding the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighbourliness between North Macedonia and Bulgaria a common position can be reached, that the veto will be used only in respect to the fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria. 

"There is a possibility of a different interpretation of the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighbourliness in Bulgaria, which is present in the negotiating framework. When you say that the negotiating framework is a 'holy book', it should be clear that there is a 'holier book' than it and that is the Lisbon Treaty in its part on human rights. All treaties, including the negotiating framework, must be based on this treaty. It is written there that there are things that are non-negotiable and are the right of every state - non-interference in internal affairs, and respect for national and cultural identity. Negotiations can be held with Bulgaria, but the veto must not be used in regard to these principles. Because Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty says that if a country violates these principles, two-thirds of the EP or the EC can propose a restriction of the voting rights of the country concerned, which was applied to Hungary," Siljanovska said in an interview with TV 24.

In her opinion, Bulgaria, and not North Macedonia, is violating the Treaty of Friendship and Neighbourliness and the fact that with the adoption of the constitutional changes North Macedonia will start negotiations with the EU is an "illusion". 

"How many times have we changed the constitution? And this illusion that now we have to change it again, because it is [a condition] in the negotiating framework to start negotiations, because otherwise we are pro-Russian, is absolutely untenable. We will be vetoed and we will get who knows how many vetoes for not meeting the Copenhagen criteria. We will be at the [European] level if we are a state governed by the rule of law if we destroy monopolies if freedoms and rights are most important for us if we have an independent judiciary if we tackle corruption and crime if we have a European education and not 24-30 law faculties that are 'paper factories' and more doctors and professors [of law] per capita than the UK," Siljanovska said in another interview for TV Telma. 

According to her, "with neighbours one should talk in a reasoned way", i.e. "they should also recognise European values".

"Isn't it a European value to respect the verdicts of [the Court of Human Rights in] Strasbourg? What kind of a country is it whose judge judges in Strasbourg and it does not recognise the judgments that apply to it? What is there that is scary about building a friendship on the principle of reciprocity, enshrined in Article 8 of the Lisbon Treaty, which says that the EU will promote the conclusion of treaties with candidate countries on a reciprocal basis with their neighbours. If you have a whole section in the Treaty of Friendship and Neighbourliness which says that Bulgaria will promote our path to the EU, will it help us if the veto is such an instrument? These are processes. The veto is problematic. I am not saying that tomorrow it will disappear, but I am saying that in this situation with Bulgaria, whether through an annex, whether through a resolution, whether through a mutual agreement, we can really stand together in the spirit of the preamble [of the Neighbourhood Treaty], that they [Bulgaria] will be our protectors, our defenders and in an hour our relations will change", Siljanovska believes.

In her words, if elected president, she will pursue a "Scandinavian policy" towards North Macedonia's neighbours, which means "mutually supportive relations" following the example of Sweden, Finland and Denmark, which have helped Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on their path to democratisation "despite their worse starting position than the former Yugoslav countries".

"If we don't unite and support each other regionally, we cannot expect support from other countries," Siljanovska said in the interview with TV 24, adding that as head of state she would make her first official visit to a country in the region, possibly Slovenia or Croatia as EU members.

Asked whether she would invite Bulgarian President Rumen Radev to a meeting, she said she would talk to him because "one cannot escape geography and geopolitics".

"Of course I will talk about everything. Of course, you have to have friends in Bulgaria who appreciate you to show that you know which is the right way. To be respected, you have to set an example. If I have published books with [colleagues from] Bulgaria, if in the Venice Commission I have made friends with colleagues from Bulgaria, I will [tell him] that (...) we can achieve other perceptions - of politics as an art of opportunity, as a search for agreement, for compromise, for understanding and help," Siljanovska said in the interview with TV 24.