The Albanian opposition supports the French proposal, the small Macedonian parties condition their support
Ballina
Rhewal
04/07/2022 15:54
Consultations continue on the French proposal for the start of negotiations for the membership of the Republic of North Macedonia with the European Union. Today, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski and the leader of the Alliance for Albanians, Ziadin Sela, held a meeting at the Club of Deputies.
Today, after the meeting with the Prime Minister, Sela said that he and his party support the French proposal.
“The road to the EU goes through the negotiations that must be reached with the EU countries. There is no doubt, the Alliance is important in this direction, we are the main actors who started these changes to be a member of the NATO Alliance today, to be more secure in this crisis in Ukraine, that is, Macedonia’s membership. for the EU it has a geopolitical importance. Therefore, politicians should think less about political points, but think about making the region more stable”. tha Sela.
When the Constitution is opened, it should be corrected and it should say the Albanian language and not the definition “language spoken by more than 20 percent of the population”.
“It would be good to address this as well. The Alliance for Albanians will insist on this. I appeal to the DUI to deal with the change of this definition, because as far as I understand the Macedonians, now it is about their dignity, so they must also understand the dignity of the Albanians”. said Sela after the meeting with Kovacevski.
Regarding a possible entry into the government, Sela said that there was no conversation, but that the Alliance for Albanians is an opposition party and will enter the government only by winning the elections.
On the other hand BESA movement after being informed by the Government about the French proposal and in accordance with party decisions confirms that accepts any proposal that paves the way for EU integration and that the same, as they say from this party, would not harm the interests of the Albanians in the country.
“Also, since the French proposal itself implies constitutional changes, we, in order to demonstrate political consistency from the last opening of the constitution, will request that the terminology “language spoken by more than 20% of the population” be corrected in the constitution and replaced with the term “Albanian language” , they say from the Besa Movement.
However, from this party they emphasized that the Government does not have the capacity, credibility or legitimacy to govern the country, therefore they repeated the request for the organization of early parliamentary elections in the country.
Even the smallest parties from the government coalition, the Democratic League, DOM and LDP last night they had a meeting with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski for the French proposal.
From what can be inferred from today’s statements by some of the leaders of these parties who threatened to leave the government over the original French proposal if accepted, last night they did not say a definite “no” to the amended proposal, but did not give nor unreserved support.
The President of DOM, Maja Moracanintold “Focus” that they have asked the prime minister that the negotiating framework and protocol be translated and explained in the Macedonian language, so that every citizen can understand them and the proposal can be discussed in the Assembly.
Democratic League of Pavle Trajanovit through a communique, it asks the Government to review the Negotiating Framework and remove from it the bilateral issues imposed by Bulgaria, so that the framework is in line with European principles and standards. After the approval of the Negotiating Framework, membership negotiations should begin with the opening of chapters.
Kovacevski, as he announced earlier, has agreed that the proposal will go to the plenary session, while the next day it is expected that the documents will be published translated into the Macedonian language.
Extensive consultations on the French proposal began on Friday, initially with coalition partners in the Government, some of whom already have expressed positively about the proposaland some are expected to do so in the coming period.
Yesterday Prime Minister Kovacevski had a meeting with the leader of the largest opposition party Christian Mickoski. For VMRO-DPMNE, the French proposal is unacceptable.
Mickoski said after the meeting that Kovacevski was offered two options – to reject the proposal, and VMRO-DPMNE to drop the demand for early parliamentary elections, or if Kovacevski believes the proposal secures the identity, then to delete four members.
The French proposal yesterday it was also reviewed by the Security Council called by the state president, Stevo Pendarovski.
The head of state after the session in the press conference declared that the French proposal is acceptable. By accepting the proposal, as he said, we lift the Bulgarian blockade that lasts more than two years and allow the formal opening of negotiations after 17 years of waiting. The screening process is enabled, which is a mandatory stage before the negotiations for the groups – chapters, and the most important thing, as he said, is that the Macedonian identity is not affected by anything because the basic definition for the Macedonian language in the proposal has a clean formulation without footnote.
The French proposal arrived in the country on Thursday, after which Prime Minister Kovacevski announced extensive consultation process with the government coalitionthe president of the country, the Parliament, the opposition, as well as with the civil sector, experts and the general public in the country.
US and EU in separate announcements yesterday welcomed the debate on the EU’s revised proposal to start membership negotiations.
The American ambassador to the country, Kate Burnsin her Twitter post, in that context emphasizes the importance of the Macedonian language and identity.
Ambassador Gir also wrote that it is quite clear that the Macedonian language in the negotiating framework has no additional qualifications.
Recently in Bulgaria, the Government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov fell, which further aggravated the political crisis in Bulgaria. At the EU Summit, Bulgaria did not lift the veto, as the parliament had to approve the French proposal and therefore lift the veto. But after the Summit, namely on June 24 of this year, Macron’s proposal passed the Bulgarian Parliament, which meant the removal of the veto from Bulgaria towards North Macedonia, but at the same time also the removal of the obstacle for Albania for the further continuation of the integration process in the EU./portalb.mk
