In his address to the nation, President Stevo Pendarovski said that now is not the time for disappointments and for minor political points because the country wasn’t approved a date for starting the accession negotiations, but now is the time to unite in order to accomplish the goals. He stated that he has summoned the leaders of the biggest political parties both from in the government and the opposition at a leadership meeting and that all of them accepted. The leadership meeting will happen on Sunday, announced Pendarovski.
-Unfortunately, the conclusions from the European Council are not in accordance with our justified expectations and in accordance with the announcements from the Union. Everyone is disappointed but emotions put aside we have to deal with the reality – said Pendarovski.
The Head of the state stated that the decision was made based upon a sovereign policy decision, by certain countries. Still, as he sad, Euro-Atlantic integration is North Macedonia’s major strategy and everyone has to work towards reaching this goal.
-We met all conditions, as was stated in June when we were told that due to other reasons the decision must be made in October. All information that we had before and after the summit spoke about conceptual objections among the leading members.
Since the beginning, my stance was and still is that all proposals for the upgrading of the methodology are welcome because the joint goal is to secure positive changes that have to occur during the process. But, in the background of the negotiations opinions could be heard about the building of a special relation by the European Union towards the states from our region, different from the road that was traversed by all former candidates.
These dilemmas touch the very essence of the European idea which is all states on the continent, by meeting the criteria have the right to a fully-fledged membership.
The idea of a unified Europe is the right for all Europeans and no one can take away that to them. We are a European state and we have the right to be part of the joint European home. Our country has a lot of sincere friends in Europe and we have no enemies in Europe only states that have their specific interests that they are protecting and there is nothing dubious about that. We are witnesses of an enormous number of countries that fight on our behalf, and we saw that. I am convinced that all of them will continue to support us – said Pendarovski.
He called upon bigger efforts that would lead to the transformation of the country and the achievement of equality among all national communities including thorough implementation of the agreements with Greece and Bulgaria.
-We have to confirm our orientation to which there is no other sustainable alternative. If we want the good, the only correct approach to these new circumstances is to be even more persistent in the transformation of the country. let’s apply the system of values. The reforms in many areas especially the legal state aspects have to continue without any calculations. European standards have to become domestic standards. Otherwise, we will not need only formal reforms.
Regardless of the decision, the agreements with Bulgaria and Greece have to be implemented thoroughly as these are the foundations of good relations and regional stability. What is also necessary are inner reforms for equality of all national communities. The least of what we need is our discontent to be directed towards some EU members. I summoned the leaderships of the biggest parties to leave their party interests aside and to reaffirm our efforts, said Pendarovski.
