Skopje, 25 August 2023 (MIA) — There is enough time to adopt the constitutional changes and VMRO-DPMNE has "the European capacity" to support them, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said in a TV21 interview on Friday evening.

"It is important to carry out this process through discussion and for the opposition to understand that it should participate in the process. It is important for the party to be part of the process. I believe that there is a European capacity within the VMRO-DPMNE that can do this, and I think we have enough time ahead of us for this to happen. The alternative outcome is a blockade and isolation," Kovachevski said.

Regarding his expectations from the meeting between US special envoy Gabriel Escobar and opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski, the prime minister said he refrained from commenting on meetings he had not attended.

As for his own meeting with Escobar on Friday, Kovachevski said the USA wanted to see North Macedonia as part of the EU.

"The government's commitments and what we are doing as a pro-European government absolutely coincide with the strategic interests of the USA," he said, noting that support was voiced at the meeting for the countries' partnership in NATO as well on matters related to European integration and the rule of law.

Dismissing the opposition's claims that the country was threatened by "Bulgarization and assimilation" through the EU's Negotiating Framework, he said this would not happen.

"As we have all seen over the previous year, I have remained Maccedonian, you Albanian, and everyone is what they already were, what their ancestors were, and what their children will be," the prime minister said. mr/