Skopje, 3 January 2025 (MIA) - If the former government had shown more serious and sincere engagement to protect the Macedonian national interests, we wouldn't have been in this position we're in today. Because the European Union and the member states have a sense of responsibility for what is being done toward us in the past 30 years, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timcho Mucunski has said.

"Yet, we're acting in principled manner and we are fulfilling everything we've promised in our program. We don't say it'll be easy, but we believe a rational solution that is also acceptable for us can be found," he says in a MKD.mk interview.

On bilateral issues taking over the enlargement process, the Minister says in the EU it is being openly talked about the negative consequences from this practice adding that certainty of the enlargement process is key. As regards the challenges with Bulgaria, Mucunski notes that dialogue will resume with good will toward finding a compromise that will secure predictability of our EU path. 

"If we constrict ourselves with deadlines, we'll undermine our positions. This doesn't mean that the process should last forever. We need to resume the dialogue as quickly as possible that exists at different levels. This dialogue has never halted. We need to find a solution because postponement of the elnargement process doesn't benefit us nor it benefits the EU member countries. It definitely doesn't benefit the whole region having in mind the complexity in it," says Mucunski.

Regarding Euroscepticism, the Minister says an increasing number of Macedonian citizens are dissappointed with the EU's treatment of the enlargement process.

"My perception, which is reflected in public opinion polls, is that a great number of our citizens are dissappointed with the EU's treatment of the enlargement process and of all injustice. At the same time, a majority of citizens believe EU accession should be our strategic priority. Let's simplify the equation - even though the citizens are dissappointed and have the right to be dissappointed by the EU, a significant majority believes the European future is the best thing for our country," stresses Mucunski. 

The Minister says that the former government got a clear "review" by the citizens in the elections, whereas the current government is focused on laying sound foundations for the functioning of institutions.

"After 15 years, we prepared changes to the law on foreign affairs, we took concrete steps to make our diplomatic service professional. Ongoing problems existing in the institution are being solved, which were left unresolved by the former ministers because they had no PR value for them while seeking certain compromises with politics," says Mucunski in the interview.

Photo: Foreign Ministry