1 Gosh, just listen to the optimism Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski is spreading after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the European Political Community Summit in Budapest. This is the same Macron who first messed things up for us, then, after we changed our name in line with the Prespa Agreement, failed to deliver on his promise of starting our EU accession talks, in 2019 he came up with a new methodology for joining the EU, which paved the way for the Bulgarian veto. To top it off, he dealt the final blow with the French Proposal in 2022, pushing to include Bulgarians in our Constitution, but not as a condition for EU membership, but just for the start of the accession talks. Keep your eyes on the prize. As Mickoski optimistically put it: “We will continue to fight for Macedonia in the weeks, months, and the years to come.”
What’s so optimistic about it? The meeting with Macron itself? A meeting on the sidelines. Optimism on the sidelines.
What else could you do, other than spread optimism, when you’re on the sidelines of the main event?
2 It is what it is. European bureaucrats will continue to recite the poem about the EU enlargement they’ve learnt by heart, which is getting increasingly boring to listen to here. One such figure is the future European Commissioner for Enlargement, the Slovenian Marta Kos, who reiterated in the European Parliament that “we expect that candidate country North Macedonia will change the Constitution.” She also noted that “when I speak about the bilateralization of the possible disputes between the member states and the candidate countries, the interests of the member states of course come first.” So, the European Union will always side with its members, not with fairness. Why give a hoot about the Copenhagen criteria?
The next day, after Mickoski stated that “with every meeting we fight more and more for our arguments and for the truth as it is,” the Élysée Palace released a statement from the meeting with Macron, announcing that France will support North Macedonia’s European integration path “in accordance with its international obligations.”
Where does that leave us now? Fine, let’s say the previous Government made a mistake. They took on an obligation that Macedonian citizens can’t fulfil. So what do we do now?
Is it really that difficult for Mickoski and Venko Filipche to define what they can agree on and offer a solution together?
First: What’s our main state interest? Joining the EU. Do we agree on that? Yes. Moving on to the next item.
Second: Do we agree to include Bulgarians in our Constitution, as a founding people, even though they have no claim and took no part in the struggle for Macedonian statehood? Quite the opposite – Bulgaria, their motherland, has been and still is an enemy of the Macedonian state. But, ok. We’ll write them into the Preamble as well. Whoever wanted to be included was included in the Macedonian Constitution, so let’s include Bulgarians as well.
Third: Do we agree that we will no longer tolerate insults and blackmail from Bulgaria, supported by the European Union, and that the inclusion of Bulgarians in our Constitution will be the last humiliation we’ll put up with for the sake of our future in the EU? I believe they’d agree on that too.
After that, have a sit-down and tell us what you’ve agreed on. Doesn’t matter if it takes place in Parliament, at a leadership meeting in the Club of MPS, or at a pub… Write a letter, pass declarations, resolutions, go there, personally deliver the letter to all 27 EU member states, hold press conferences, make statements, announcements… Do whatever you want. The important thing is that you’ve agreed on something. And we, the citizens, will know where things stand.
This battle can’t be fought one by one. The country can’t move forward if the party leaders are in each other’s crosshairs all the time. It’s not like they hate each other. It’s just their style of communicating. By bashing each other that way, they fool us into thinking they actually care about the state. This has been going on for 33 years.
We’re already in the third decade of the 21st century, and our politics is still stuck on who’s a traitor and who’s a patriot, as if we’re still in the late 19th century. Utter nonsense!
On any other issue, feel free to tear each other apart. But on the topic of the EU, if we’ve already agreed that it’s an ultimate state interest, stand united and go together in Brussels. Go to Ursula, go to Marta, let them be the ones to convey the message. Tell them: Here we are, we have a consensus. We’ll include Bulgarians in our Constitution, but you need to save us from Bulgaria. We’re asking for guarantees that Bulgaria will stop harassing us because of our national identity during the negotiation process. You say that you can’t give guarantees? No one can give guarantees? It might seem to be the case, but if there’s political will, there’ll be a way.
The problem is we already have a negotiation framework. Yeah, right. As if these are the Ten Commandments that God handed to Moses on two stone tablets that read: “Negotiation Framework” and “Protocol for the Start of Negotiations.” As if Bujar Osmani carved something in stone, and it will stay that way for all eternity – amen.
If needed, the Constitution can be changed a hundred more times, the country’s name can be changed, but the negotiation framework – absolutely not.
3 The moment they decide to admit us to the EU, they’ll start looking for solutions how to admit us to the EU. The same way they found solutions for Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, the same way they found a solution for Croatia in 2013, and the same way they found a solution for the ten countries of the Eastern bloc, including Slovenia, in 2004. They gave it some thought. They wanted to admit them, they decided to admit them. All of them were less troublesome than us, right? The Copenhagen criteria thrived on all sides. Look at them now, they’re in full bloom. With Trump on the other side of the Atlantic and all the little Trump-wannabes resurrecting fascism on the far right across European countries, they’ll flourish even more.
No, no. Let’s stop fooling ourselves. The European Union, the way it is currently, hasn’t made a decision to admit the Western Balkans. Ursula von der Leyen can come to Skopje a hundred more times to tell us that “Europe is not complete without the Western Balkans,” and it will still be in vain. The time when we took that seriously is long gone. It’s simple, they don’t want to bother with us. To be frank, they put us on the agenda, they sometimes invite us for a short visit, let us mingle with them in the corridors, on the sidelines, and even organise roundtable events for us. Just to keep the bureaucrats occupied, justifying the high salaries they receive.
They despise us. In their eyes, we’re an inferior race. Just a bunch of Balkan people who deserve to be harassed at the border. People who don’t deserve roaming services free of charge, and on top of not being able to move freely, they won’t even be able to make a phone call.
It is what it is. That’s why, instead of focusing so much on the EU, let’s for once focus on ourselves. Forget about the “weeks, months, years” Mickoski talks about, trying to give us hope with something he thinks is optimistic.
We, who’ve stayed here, need to live. Not hope.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
