News
7/21/2022 08:39
The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs, Bojan Mariciк, when asked by a journalist whether there is a difference between the negotiations of the European Union with North Macedonia and with Albania, stated that both countries held the first Intergovernmental Conferences on the same day and jointly forwarded the meeting to start the screening process.
The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that the difference is clear and that until the next Intergovernmental Conference, i.e. until the opportunity to open Chapters and Clusters, the Bulgarians, and of course the Montenegrins and the Croats should be included in the preamble of the Constitution.
- We have one condition to close the opening part of the negotiations, i.e. for after the screening. We practically receive the screening with the opening of the negotiations. That was not a possibility before because there was no decision to start negotiations. Operationalization for start of negotiations is the screening. We undertook a commitment within the negotiations with Bulgaria and it is part of the French proposal, explained Deputy Prime Minister Maricik.
Maricik believes that the time frame for the screening, which has been determined with approximate dates, gives enough time and space for argumentation, for the exchange of ideas, for a real political dialogue with all political parties, with all MPs in the Parliament to create an atmosphere for conversation and achieving the required 2/3 majority.
- The dynamics have not yet been determined, but I think there will be enough time to rationalize the debate first. So, it depends on us whether we will succeed or not until then. If we finish all the screenings and the EU Council Reports are adopted, the opening clusters are determined in order to go to the next phase, we must fulfil this area. So, whether we will do it by November 2023 or after that depends on the Parliament. It is in our interest to make it happen as soon as possible so that we don't have other tasks left for the second Intergovernmental Conference, said Deputy Prime Minister Maricik.