North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said today that the process of joining the European Union has become a "moving target" and instead of a merit system, there are double standards and bilateral disputes, MIA reported, quoted by BTA.
"For us, the fairy tale has become a moving target. We are a victim of bilateralism or, to be more precise, our move towards the EU is very complicated. Instead of bringing Europe to the Balkans, we brought the Balkans to Europe. Unfortunately, there are EU member states that come from the Balkans and that brought bilateral disputes with them to Brussels, instead of bringing Brussels values to the Balkans," Mickoski said at a meeting on the Western Balkans on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
He added that changing the country's name is not the only interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, as is changing the flag. According to him, North Macedonia has fully coordinated its foreign and defense policy with the European one and is among the five countries that are the largest donors to Ukraine per capita. The country has also fulfilled the condition of 2 percent of GDP defense spending.
Mickoski said that Europe will not be united until all European countries join the EU and that this process "will last until all candidate countries become part of the common mass with the other EU member states."