site.btaPACE Reaffirms Support for North Macedonia’s European Integration Path

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) supports and will continue to support North Macedonia on its path toward European integration, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos said during his official visit to the country marking the 30th anniversary of its membership in the Council of Europe.

Addressing members of the North Macedonian Parliament, Rousopoulos said that during the three decades of its membership in the Council of Europe, the country had demonstrated that moral maturity is not measured by size but by the ability to listen, respect, and accept others, local media reported.

He recalled his previous visits to the country – first as a journalist and later as a minister in the Greek government, as well as his meetings with the country’s first president, Kiro Gligorov. Rousopoulos referred to Gligorov’s words that North Macedonia’s future lay in Europe, but that its responsibility was at home, where it had to prove that small nations could live in peace and democracy. The PACE President said that the country had succeeded in doing so and described its progress as significant and remarkable. He added that, as head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and as a politician from neighbouring Greece, he regarded it as an honour and a personal joy to see the country as living proof of Gligorov’s words.

Rousopoulos also emphasized that each generation must write its own chapter in history not to change its convictions, but to keep its promise alive – a promise that the law will protect the weak, that truth will outlast propaganda, and that human dignity will remain the measure of civilization.

Rousopoulos was welcomed in Skopje by Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi, who voiced gratitude for the support that the Council of Europe has provided to North Macedonia since 1995, the parliamentary press office further said.