Skopje, 23 September 2022 (MIA) - Members of the European Parliament Tineke Strik and Reinhard Bütikofer said Friday in Skopje they want North Macedonia to have a fair process of accession negotiations with fair criteria in which bilateral issues do not have such impact. From now on, we will try to clean this process and make sure it is a process in which negotiations are based on merits, criteria, reforms, rule of law, fundamental human rights and the judiciary in order the country to become part of the European family, the MEPs, who represent the Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) Group in the European Parliament, told a news conference in Parliament. Strik said they want to make sure EU member states do not take advantage of those outside the club. "We will exert pressure on the Commission and the member countries as well as the parties in the European Parliament so there are no irrelevant bases for the further course of the membership negotiations," she stated. According to the Dutch MEP, the so called French proposal and the high pressure have caused polarization in the country and confidence into the EU and the government to drop. "We all need to work together to restore the trust." Speaking at the news conference, Strik said they have offered their support to the institutions and the political parties sending a clear message that they want to help secure better cooperation between the EU and North Macedonia. "We should also support you in reform implementation. Laws have been adopted, now they need to be implemented. Attention should be paid to discrimination and hate speech not only because it is a EU membership condition, but also because it benefits both the society and the citizens," said the MEP. If rule of law and human rights are respected, said Strik, it would mean that the membership conditions are met regardless of history and identity. She stated she hopes that the obstacles as regards bilateral issues will be settled. Ending the news conference, the MEP said she expects the citizens to unite and a good negotiating process to be made sure that North Macedonia join the EU as soon as possible. Asked about the constitutional changes set as a condition for the opening of chapters in the negotiations process, German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer said the main question for him is "will we succeed to avoid a continuous process of placing obstacles one after the other." He said he would be in favor of raising constitutional issues once the negotiations were to be fully completed. "I think the question is will we manage to avoid this continuous process of obstacles one after the other. This is not in the spirit of Europe and it won't be in the spirit of what some countries had explicitly promised. Once former chancellor Merkel told a head of state that blocked that if they had acted the way they had been treating North Macedonia now, they wouldn't have been there at talks as an EU member," said Bütikofer.