NEW YORK – Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that his country believes in European values and is ready to move forward and find a way out of the current deadlock.
As Government stated, Mickoski made remarks on Monday at the Concordia Summit in in New York, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Mickoski stressed that, for his generation, negotiations with the EU were seen as a way to change institutions rather than identity, but that „unfortunately, there are some member states that are trying to resolve bilateral issues and change the Macedonian identity“.
„We are victims of a kind of bullying: ’Either you are in or you are out, and if you want to be in, you have to swallow what we are asking of you’. But, this is an option, and there is no better option for my country. Since there is no better option, we are ready to move forward and find a way out of this situation“, Mickoski said.
Asked whether positive messages were still coming from Brussels, Mickoski said that the messages from the EU-Western Balkans summit in tivat had been extremely positive.
„France and Germany jointly presented an informal document. We are hearing from Brussels that this document could perhaps become part of the EU’s official policy in the next Council conclusions. We will see. In the meantime, we have fully aligned our common foreign and security policy with the EU. Our legislation is more or less aligned with EU legislation“, Mickoski added.
According to him, frustration among Macedonian citizens is considerable, as the country has made too many concessions in the past.
„We changed our flag, amended the Constitution several times, and even changed our constitutional name, and all of this seems like a never-ending story. Nevertheless, we believe in European values and will continue to along this path so that we can finally find a way out of the deadlock in which we are currently find ourselves. Obviously, we have to wait, but we are not simply waiting – we are also working. We are building and developing“, Mickoski concluded.
