The region, my country of Macedonia, have been fighting for European values for decades. There is no doubt that there is no other alternative for the region than membership in the EU and NATO. It is good that we are a member of NATO, but the delivery from the EU is lacking, said Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski at a panel discussion held in Brussels by “Friends of Europe”.
Nikoloski emphasized that in the past decades Macedonia has made great sacrifices for the accession process, but according to him, key players in the EU should be fair and send an honest message whether the region and Macedonia will join the EU.
The country is transforming from within, as much as we can with our internal resources, but we are also trying to use international resources, whether through cooperation with the EU, with the USA…. We signed a strategic partnership agreement with the United Kingdom, the first country in SEE to sign such an agreement, I had the honor of signing that agreement in May of this year, it is not that we are not working, it is not that we are not trying or that we are not looking for partners and obviously partners are where we belong, in Western civilization. Regarding the EU, I agree, enlargement is a political process – no EU enlargement has been non-political, starting with Greece and Portugal, in the previous century, then the major enlargement at the beginning of this century, all the way to Romania and Bulgaria – everything has been political. It is clear that for this region, there lacks political will, said Deputy Prime Minister Nikoloski.
What scares me, added Deputy Prime Minister Nikoloski, is that there are still powerful forces in the region, who are looking to seize the opportunity to seize power with a different vision and are waiting for the enlargement process to fail.
The reasons are different for different countries, but there is clearly a lack of political will. I think it is fair to tell the people of the region – this can be done, this cannot be done. And let’s do the things that can be done. If we can do 10 out of 20 things, then let’s deliver them, because we are stuck in a waiting situation like this: the next summit, the next summit, June, December, maybe in mid-March… and so time passes and what I fear is what could happen to the region in the future,” emphasized the Deputy Prime Minister.
Deputy Prime Minister Nikoloski emphasized that in such conditions the only way to develop countries is economic cooperation and highlighted the government’s plans for major regional projects that promote economic cooperation with neighbors.
What I think we need to do is to cooperate economically, which we are already doing in the region, and to connect. We are a landlocked country, but we have two European corridors that pass through the country, Corridor 10 from Athens, to Finland and Corridor 8 from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. We are investing a lot of money to build highways, railways and that is something that can change and shape the economic future of the country and something that we should see as the future of the region,” said Nikoloski and added:
“Now we are talking with Greece to create 13 lines at the border points, so that everything functions faster. We are talking about the railway with Bulgaria, today I will meet with their Deputy Prime Minister, to open another border point, so we open up to each other and try to keep it away from political games”.
He stressed that support for EU membership in the region is still high and highlighted the model of cooperation between Slovenia and Croatia as a model for good cooperation and resolving bilateral issues, but as he said, unfortunately Macedonia is open to cooperation, but the other side has no interest.
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