Skopje, 3 July 2022 (MIA) – The modified French proposal is a transitional compromise for one of the stages of European integration, in which three elements are important and that is why the proposal in this form is acceptable, said President Stevo Pendarovski after a session of the Security Council on Sunday. “First, it lifts the Bulgarian blockade that has been ongoing for more than two years and allows for the opening of the accession negotiations. We stay on the European path, which is a long one, lose nothing, and now is the time to open the strategic dialogue here, in the country,” said President Pendarovski. He said the acceptance of the modified French proposal would only lead to the opening of the EU accession negotiations and this decision is neither a historic triumph nor a historic failure or debacle. The President said the entire situation has brought high political tensions in the country but added “this is not a fateful dilemma ‘to be or not to be; for the nation and the state, nor a decision that will define future generations of Macedonians and Macedonian citizens.” According to him, there is nothing in the proposal that undermines the Macedonian identity, since the Macedonian language is clearly formulated. Pendarovski expects that once the proposal enters into Government procedure, and in case it is accepted, that one brief sentence is incorporated in the conclusions, reading that from the day when the accession negotiations begin until their completion, whenever that may be, there would be no additional attempts by Bulgaria or any other side to again mention the Macedonian identity, history, language, because otherwise the country would withdraw from such negotiations. He said that discussions with top European and global leaders have not given him the impression they want to “deface the Macedonian people and state.” The President added that the French proposal does not put history as a condition and there is only one sentence in the proposal and the protocols that suggests more frequent meetings between the countries’ historians. “I am convinced that we could not have done more from a position of candidate country,” underlined Pendarovski.