SKOPJE – During Wednesday’s parliamentary discussion of the no-confidence motion against Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov, the opposition claim that Dimitrov has put the country’s European future in jeopardy, considering North Macedonia was denied an unconditional date for starting talks with the EU, Mia.mk reported.
„Responsibility must be taken. Political responsibility is a prerequisite, the foundation, for securing a country’s future“, VMRO-DPMNE’s MP Rashela Mizrahi said.
According to Mizrahi, without going into its contents, the fact is that Dimitrov signed an agreement without being authorized to do so by the President, which is otherwise a normal constitutional procedure.
„You have jeopardized not only the Macedonian future and our European perspective. You jeopardized the existence of the Macedonian nation, history, language and state“, she said.
Opposition MPs said they filed the no-confidence motion because the public was manipulated over the country being approved date to start negotiations with the EU, and the series of foreign failures among other things.
Dimitrov said that the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria had been unanimously welcomed by the international community, calling it a great inspiration for the whole region and a big step for the country toward the EU.
„The government got an unconditional recommendation for EU accession negotiations and our neighbour, Bulgaria, was the one that violated Article 2 of the Treaty, where it obligated to help us on our path to EU integration“, he said.
Dimitrov noted that it was his job to negotiate the agreements to be in the best possible interest of the country.
Addressing opposition criticism, Dimitrov said if the opposition truly wanted to tackle the unfortunate developments arising from the neighbour’s non-European behaviour, it should have risen above party lines and join the government in its EU integration efforts in a bid to meet the second strategic goal after the country had joined NATO last year.
This is the third no-confidence motion filed against Dimitrov in the past 3,5 years. Dimitrov survived two no-confidence votes as foreign minister.