European integration remains North Macedonia’s strategic goal, and the government of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski continues to look for a way to unblock accession negotiations with the European Union, through dialogue with Bulgaria and efforts to change the perception of European partners.
Mickoski reiterated the official state position in response to a parliamentary question from MP Arbana Pasholi of the European Front in the Assembly of North Macedonia, stressing that his government’s goal is not only to start the process of European integration, but to successfully complete it.
"The European Union remains our strategic goal, and there is no shifting there, not by a millimeter. We want to start that process and finish it, not just start it," Mickoski said, emphasizing that his government is conducting a dialogue with Bulgaria, and called on the opposition to propose representatives who would join the negotiating team.
Mickoski assessed that the stalemate in European integration is a consequence of the policies of the previous government of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), stating that the current government is working on creating conditions for unblocking the process.
As indicators of progress, he singled out the contacts between the foreign ministers of North Macedonia and Bulgaria, as well as meetings with European Commissioner Marta Kos in Sofia, assessing that this is a slow but continuous process.
North Macedonia began the first phase of negotiations with the EU in July 2022 by adopting the negotiating framework. For the transition to the next phase, Sofia demands that North Macedonia amend its Constitution and include Bulgarians among the communities listed in the preamble, while the dispute is also marked by long-standing disagreements over shared history, historical figures, language and national identity. Although the European proposal for launching accession negotiations was accepted in 2022, the constitutional amendments have not yet been adopted.
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The authorities in Skopje are seeking guarantees that fulfilling this condition will not lead to new bilateral demands. Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski warned that constantly changing conditions undermine trust in the enlargement process and called on the EU to provide a clearer and more predictable path to membership.
Until the constitutional amendments envisaged by the negotiating framework are adopted, North Macedonia cannot proceed to opening the first negotiating cluster, dedicated to the fundamentals of the accession process.
