Skopje, 24 August 2023 (MIA) - The United States Deputy Assistant Secretary, Gabriel Escobar, is set to pay a two-day visit to North Macedonia starting Thursday. Escobar will meet with President Stevo Pendarovski on Thursday, and is expected to meet with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski.

Escobar’s visit to Skopje comes after the beginning of the parliamentary procedure for the adoption of the constitutional amendments adding the Bulgarians to the Constitution, as a prerequisite for the continuation of North Macedonia’s EU accession talks and the holding of the second intergovernmental conference.

In a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in July, Escobar said Washington supports the process for constitutional changes and is also engaged with the new government of Bulgaria to ensure it makes no new demands.

“To further its EU aspirations, the government of North Macedonia has committed to enacting a constitutional change to recognize its Bulgarian minority. We strongly support this difficult but necessary step, and we are also engaged with the new government of Bulgaria to ensure it makes no new demands once North Macedonia fulfills its commitments under existing agreements,” Escobar said.

At the hearing, Escobar underscored that Euro-Atlantic integration is essential to reducing “the harmful influence of actors, like Russia and the PRC, but also corrupt local actors that seek to destabilize the region and hinder this integration while expanding their own influence.”

In an interview for the Voice of America in May, asked about the opposition’s refusal to support the constitutional amendments and the potential failure to adopt them, Escobar said the U.S. are most concerned about the lost time.

“Our biggest concern is that we will lose time. We are not asking the opposition to support the Prime Minister. We are asking the opposition to support North Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic path. This is the best agreement we could have gotten. For now, I think it’s rational, and we should move forward as soon as possible. So, I hope that all parties across the political spectrum will vote for the constitutional changes, so North Macedonia can continue the negotiations with the EU,” said Escobar in the interview.

The plenary session on the need to amend the Constitution began on August 18. The session’s agenda was adopted with 70 votes “in favor”. After the end of the discussion, Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi adjourned the vote until a two-third majority is secured. 

The adoption of the need to amend the Constitution requires the support of 80 MPs, and represents the first in a total of three stages of the constitutional amendments process.

Photo: MIA Archive