EU WITHOUT YOU

by | 17 December, 2021

“EU with you” is fine, but not as Macedonians speaking Macedonian language and not as antifascists in World War II.

1 How about that, yet again we have no date for starting the EU accession talks. How nice. Ha, ha, ha… The EU folks have lied to Zaev once again. Ha, ha, ha… Surely if we were the ones in power, we would have called their bluff.

Who have they lied to? Are Zaev and SDSM the only ones being lied to? All of us who live here and have been dreaming about EU for 30 years are the ones being lied to. This week marks exactly 16 years since Macedonia got its candidate status.

I cannot fathom how can someone actually rejoice at Bulgaria’s third veto. Why do they enjoy it? Is it some other country that they’re making fun of? They enjoy the fact that Bulgaria has messed up their own country. It destroys the future of our children. Is that something to find joy in? Something to cheer about? Unless they got their children Bulgarian passports too.

It’s highly irresponsible, both from a political and from a human aspect, for the Bulgarian veto to be a subject which gets you to power or strips you off of it. Let the political elites at least agree on that. In what democratic country, is the decision on strategic matters made only by the ruling party? And in what country does the opposition not help with solving an issue which is considered to be of strategic interest to the state? And they do that not because they have something smart to say, but simply to get into power.

In fact, we don’t know VMRO-DPMNE’s stand on this issue, nor their suggestions for solving it. If they’re lucky, one day they will get into power. How will they then deal with this hostile act of an EU member state?

2 The true reconciliation will happen when SDSM and VRMO-DPMNE stop blaming each other for the Bulgarian veto, get their act together, unite and define a national strategy how to get out of this problem. Tell us what we can count on. Even if they have agreed to make concessions to Bulgaria. Even if they have broken down the negotiations. Finally, even if they have given up on EU membership.

I don’t know how they can’t realize that the country is facing a powerful enemy. Bulgaria is a more organized country than ours and is a EU member state. I don’t know how they are not aware of the dimension this blockade brings, which is far more terrible than the Greek one. Admit you’re Bulgarians, and then we’ll let you start the EU accession talks – this is what Bulgaria is asking.

Greece wanted to change the name of the document. Bulgaria wants to change the content of the document. With Greece, we have negotiated about a geographical qualifier, Vardar, Skopje, Central, this and that… With Bulgaria, on the other hand, we need to negotiate whether Macedonians and Macedonian language actually exist. With the Greeks, besides adding a qualifier to our name, we haven’t lost anything. On the contrary, we’ve gained NATO membership. However, with the Bulgarians we will lose everything.
And if this isn’t a wake up call strong enough for the parties to let their struggle for power aside, then let’s activate plan B. It is too late for us, but there is still time for our children.

3And we’ll fool ourselves time and time again, that they’ll concede in six months time, in two months time, not this December, but next June, not this presidency, but a different one, not these elections, but the next…

We have nothing else to do in order to start the EU accession talks. How can we negotiate with someone who keeps telling you that you don’t exist? It’s not our fault that even in the EU itself, when it comes to Macedonia, they’re not talking about European standards, but rather indifferently watch as one EU member state wreaks havoc on a country which aspires to become an EU member.

But, what kind of a negotiation position do we have, when we blame each other at home about who’s responsible for the Bulgarian veto, and the European Union is telling you – you have no blame whatsoever. It’s unbelievably stupid indeed to blame ourselves for Bulgaria’s requests. Why should we feel like the guilty party? Is it the fact that we are Macedonians who speak Macedonian language? Are we guilty because we are alive?

We know what awaits us after the first six months of the new Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov. We don’t even have to wait his six months. The problem could be solved tomorrow. The only thing that we need to do is accept that there are no Macedonians and there is no Macedonian language.

So, Macedonia is not joining the EU. And not through it’s own fault.

4 I’m fascinated by the resilience and the flexibility of EU’s bureaucracy when it comes to making up phrases on compromises, no matter how dumb they sound, like that last conclusion that “The Council eagerly awaits the holding of the first intergovernmental conferences with the Republic of North Macedonia and Albania as early as possible after the approval of the negotiations framework by the Council”.

This matter is “as soon as possible”. We’ve been in the “as soon as possible” phase since 18 December, 2005, when at 03:00 AM, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, which held the Presidency of the Union then, declared Macedonia’s candidate status in Brussels and said: “EU’s vision is a united Europe in all forms, and that refers to Macedonia as well”.

A few years ago, there was a campaign for promoting European values in Macedonia with the tagline “EU for you”. Now, we have a “EU with you” campaign. The next one will be “EU without you”.
Or, we can still keep the tagline “EU with you”, but not as Macedonians speaking Macedonian language, and not as antifascists in World War II.

5President Stevo Pendarovski says he sees no threat to the country’s stability in the wake of Bulgaria’s blockade to Macedonia.

Is this destabilization not big enough, when the biggest parties consider each other the greatest enemies, and the opposition is blocking the Assembly at any cost and is knowingly holding the whole country hostage?

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski