site.btaSome EU Countries Take Our Bilateral Disputes to Brussels Instead of Taking Brussels Values to Balkans, North Macedonia PM Mickoski Says

EU membership has become a "moving target" for North Macedonia, said the country's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski during the panel on the Western Balkans' EU accession at the Munich Security Conference, the government press office in Skopje reported Monday.

"We are a victim of bilateralization or, more precisely, our movement towards the EU is very complex", Mickoski said. "Instead of bringing Europe to the Balkans, we have brought the Balkans to Europe. Unfortunately, there are EU member states from the Balkans who have taken our bilateral disputes to Brussels instead of taking Brussels values to the Balkans".

Mickoski asked if the speech on the first day of the conference by US Vice President JD Vance was "assessed by some as interference in the internal affairs" of certain countries, how the change of the country's name, the change of the flag and the change of the country's currency could be assessed. 

"Is this not interference in the internal affairs (of North Macedonia)?", Mickoski continued. "How long will we suffer from double standards? We are not talking about a process based on the merit system, we are talking about bilateral disputes that should have nothing to do with European values (...) I have to stress that when Russia attacks and denies the Ukrainian identity that President Zelenskyy is talking about, we all criticize, we fight for the rights of the Ukrainian people and against this unprecedented aggression, but when the parliament of a European country attacks and denies the Macedonian identity and my Macedonian mother tongue, everyone is silent".

According to media reports in Skopje, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos has said that the EU is focused on security and peace at a time when she believes it is threatened by external forces.

"Enlargement today is not only influenced by what the US does, but also by geopolitics. We have a peculiar situation, we have external forces that divide us and want to see us fail", she said. "The European Union is becoming more and more important. The EU was created for peace, freedom, security and prosperity. Now let us return to security and peace. Enlargement could be the most important element of the security guarantee. There is a reason why countries want to join the EU". According to Kos, "the EU is working at an accelerated pace to finalize Albania and Montenegro's membership by 2027, but when things move forward with North Macedonia, this could also progress quickly."

North Macedonia was granted EU candidate status 20 years ago, along with Croatia and before Albania. And while Croatia is already an EU member, Albania, which was initially together with North Macedonia, has started to open negotiating chapters, while the North Macedonian government refuses to fulfil the condition for this - changing the constitution and including Bulgarians in it.