Skopje, 21 December 2023 (MIA) – I am afraid that in the entire region and in our country a perception is being created that the European Union is tricking us. How should we explain to the Macedonian citizens that the EU accession is being assessed on the basis of the so-called merit system, i.e., you progress as you fulfill the criteria, when that hasn’t happened, said President Stevo Pendarovski in an interview on Thursday evening for TV Kanal 5.

“They say those who deserve it, progress, but we can see that they don’t. We’ve changed the name of our country – the top European leaders in 2018 through video messages were saying ‘just this one more thing, and you’ll begin negotiations’. In the meantime, there were an additional three-four conditions which were not related to Bulgaria, the new methodology proposed by France, we waited on the German Bundestag to assess it and approve it for eight months…,” said Pendarovski.

Regarding Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stepping out of the room during the vote to open negotiations with Ukraine, and why the same couldn’t have been done with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev when a decision was being made on North Macedonia, President Pendarovski said the European leaders did not want to do such a thing. “Might makes right, and we are a small country,” said Pendarovski.

Asked about the Bulgarian demands, the opposition’s refusal to support the constitutional amendments and their claims that a new negotiating framework and guarantees are possible, Pendarovski said such statements are made purely out of political reasons. He said the inclusion of Bulgarians within the Constitution is the sole condition for the continuation of the country’s EU talks.

“Out of all of Bulgaria’s disgusting proposals against the Macedonian identity, only the inclusion of the Bulgarians within the Constitution has remained. Those who claim that there will be a new negotiating framework or guarantees that there will be no new blockades, do so out of political reasons. Bulgaria’s demands were anachronous and divorced from reality. Sofia hasn’t given up on that narrative, but it wasted its credits and Brussels told them – forget about the other demands, only the [demand about the] Bulgarians in the Constitution remains. We will become an EU member state once the great powers approve that. But, when we do become a member, we will certainly not adopt the Bulgarian historical narrative as our history. This isn’t a precondition,” said President Stevo Pendarovski.

Photo: MIA Archive