Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Hristiyan Mickoski announced that he will request a meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, BTA reported.
In an interview for "360 degrees" on MRT1, Mickoski was asked whether he would request a meeting, after the government in North Macedonia had been explaining for a long time that it expected a political government to be formed in Bulgaria with which to talk about the country's European integration and the proposal that the change in the constitution would come into force after North Macedonia becomes a member of the EU.
This question was asked to the Prime Minister of North Macedonia yesterday, and the answer was that he is ready to talk with anyone and at any time in order to unblock the country's negotiations with the EU.
„I have no problem initiating a meeting with Bulgaria, we are neighbors and it is logical to initiate such a meeting, to get to know each other, we are colleagues, we cooperate, we are together in NATO. I will absolutely request a meeting. Let's see in this environment whether we can overcome our differences in terms of how (we) see (North) Macedonia's path to full membership in the European Union and how they see it. Here is the difference in general, because we certainly have different views on the same topic. We have our own strategy, the essence of which is whether after two decades we will be allowed to start the negotiation process and it will be evaluated on the basis of merits, not on bilateral disputes. Let's see if we can find a solution here and then look for a solution for everything else“, said Hristiyan Mitskoski in his interview.
At a press conference earlier today, the chairman of the opposition SDSM Venko Filipche also stated that he supports Mitskoski requesting a meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.
„Now there is a political government in Sofia and I absolutely support the prime minister requesting a meeting with the political government and the prime minister in Bulgaria as soon as possible. To see whether we can get additional guarantees or not. We will support any better proposal (than what is included in the negotiating framework agreed with the SDSM government). "We will support absolutely any form of additional guarantees (for the negotiations), but let (the meeting) take place as soon as possible, because time is running out. Albania and Montenegro are making great strides forward," said Filipche, according to whom the previous governments led by SDSM did their utmost to protect the country's positions during the negotiations on the so-called French proposal.
A condition for automatically holding a second intergovernmental conference with North Macedonia and a real start of the country's negotiations with the EU is the inclusion of Bulgarians in the country's constitution, which for the VMRO-DPMNE government is unacceptable and a retreat from national interests made by the SDSM government. According to VMRO-DPMNE, in order to have predictability in the country's European integration, the changes to the constitution should come into force only after the negotiations are concluded and the member states ratify the treaty on the accession of North Macedonia to the EU.
The US Embassy in the Republic of North Macedonia has notified all non-governmental and other organizations working on projects funded by the US to stop their implementation and not to make any expenditures, media in North Macedonia reported, BTA reported.
The request is in accordance with an order by the new US President Donald Trump, who froze foreign aid to all countries, except Israel and Egypt, for almost three months.
According to the publication Nezavisen.mk, the request was “a cold shower for everyone who already works with the (US) embassy, as the expectations were that the order would apply to new ones, but it also applies to current ones” projects.
US assistance to North Macedonia has focused on the rule of law, cybersecurity, the environment, developing democracy, improving competitiveness, fighting corruption and promoting greater civic participation. The US has provided almost half a billion dollars in assistance to the judiciary alone, prompting US Ambassador Angela Aggeler to say that while much funding has been provided to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, trust in it is still very low, the publication writes.