Talking Europe hosts Bujar Osmani, the foreign minister of North Macedonia, which launched EU accession talks nearly a year ago – although it has been in the EU’s waiting room for far longer than that. Currently a screening process of North Macedonia’s legislation is under way, and Osmani urges the opening of talks with the EU on key topics. He warns that North Macedonian society has become wary of “making concessions while there are no deliverables”.
On the constitutional changes that are now emerging as key to North Macedonia continuing its EU path, Osmani says, “Our public is hesitant about constitutional change because we recently had constitutional changes, just four years ago, on the name change (from Macedonia to North Macedonia). So people feel that this EU process has become a moving target, and that we have to keep making concessions while there are no deliverables from the other side. So the environment has become a bit difficult for us to pursue the process.”
Asked about past, and potential future, Bulgarian vetoes on Bulgaria’s EU membership process, Osmani says: “From my experience, what’s been detrimental to our relations with Bulgaria and to our European perspective has been this perpetual election process in Bulgaria, and not having a political government as an interlocutor to establish trust and communication, and to move forward. But now the Bulgarian parliament has approved the new government, and I’m very optimistic that with a new political government in place, we can open a new chapter between our two countries.”
On the issue of corruption and the need for judicial reforms, which were again highlighted by Transparency International last year, Osmani says, “Last year we had the best score in the region in meeting political and economic criteria, and at the level of transposing the EU’s acquis communautaire. North Macedonia has, partly by having been on this EU path for so long, been a front-runner even compared to countries that launched accession negotiations way back, like 10 years ago.”
Continuing on the theme of the rule of law, Osmani affirms, “We’re insisting on opening the clusters of negotiations. Accession negotiations have these overarching chapters on rule of law, chapters 23 and 24, which are opened first and closed last. And these provide the frame through which we will be able to improve our society and Europeanise our society. This is why we are pushing to open the clusters as soon as possible.”
On the tensions in northern Kosovo, Osmani states, “North Macedonia is a NATO member. A country that has created a unique model of functional multi-ethnic democracy. We are quite resilient to spillover effects. In my national capacity, but also as the current chairperson of the OSCE, we are closely following the developments in the north of Kosovo. I have proposed a 9-point plan to de-escalate the situation by bringing the Serbian community into the Kosovo institutions through re-launching an election process. I have a plan to go to Belgrade and Pristina soon with my troika group of ministers to contribute further to de-escalation.”
Programme produced by Juliette Laurain, Sophie Samaille, Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romeo