Foreign Affairs Minister Nikola Poposki in an annual address at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) urged the six consecutive recommendations of the European Commission on the opening of accession talks with Macedonia  to be accepted in an attempt to restore the credibility of the EU enlargement process.

Poposki together with Ditmir Bushati, Igor Luksic, Enver Hohxaj, Ivica Dacic and Zlatko Lagumdzija, his Albanian, Montenegrin, Kosovo, Serbian and Bosnian counterparts respectively, and Montenegro’s Parliament Speaker Ranko Krivokapic addressed MEPs and officials of the national parliaments of EU countries, MIA’s correspondent reports from Brussels.

Opening the meeting, AFET chairman Elmar Brok said the EP supported the 2003 Thessaloniki Agenda stipulating that all Western Balkan countries one day should join the Union. According to him, the countries in the region belonged in the EU and if they wanted to become EU members, the European Parliament would assist them in a diplomatic, financial or in any other way.

Speaking at the AFET meeting, FM Poposki outlined three points that required attention – the context involving the EU’s Thessaloniki Agenda and the major encouragement for everybody in the Balkans that the enlargement process is not forgotten and that they need to abide by the rules.

The Macedonian Minister as a second point mentioned the national context i.e. the fact that Macedonia had signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU back in 2001, had become a candidate country in 2005 and had gotten the first recommendation for the opening of membership talks in 2009, which since then had been repeated by the European Commission six times, but had never been accepted by the EU members and the European Council.

The third point, according to Poposki, is the political context of the EU that the enlargement process will be stalled in the next five years.

“At the moment, Macedonia is focused on the High Level Accession Dialogue (HLAD) because it encompasses two key chapters, 23 and 24, that refer to judiciary, the media, transparency, advertising, political relations, political culture, internal relations between stakeholders and the OSCE recommendations. There is also a special chapter on good neighborly relations, which doesn’t mean that the country has no favorable relations with its neighbors, on the contrary, I believe they are excellent,” stated Poposki.

Macedonia, he added, has a solid exchange of information and communications with all the neighbors, both non-EU and EU members, such as Bulgaria. “The reason why the country has this chapter is Greece and the name issue. However, the relations between Greece and Macedonia are excellent from an economic point of view… Still, there is a different political context and a strengthened engagement is needed in a bid to solve the issue.”

“In my opinion, what is important is to restore the credibility of the enlargement process and candidate countries and potential candidates are expected to produce concrete results. Accession negotiations could be opened, which would give us time to adjust to the requirements of the EU,” said FM Poposki.

He urged negotiations to be endorsed as an instrument allowing member-states to focus on reforms, which was also necessary in the Western Balkans.

“Regarding the situation in Macedonia, we didn’t open talks, not because the process is long, but because there is no consensus… The reality is that consensus is needed. An international court in The Hague had ruled that no one has the right to impose a name different than the one democratically elected by this country. This is not a reason preventing us from heightening our relations with Greece,” Poposki noted.

The new EP rapporteur on Macedonia, Ivo Vajgl said his Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) was in the EP to back the enlargement process.

“Macedonia is on the right path towards the European Union and it is an example for many countries in the region, but it is facing numerous problems. First and foremost, the EU was not efficient in solving unresolved issues and it is unacceptable the European Commission for six years in a row to recommend opening of negotiations and this hasn’t happened yet. The name row isn’t solved yet and we need to have bigger ambitions to settle the dispute and I believe the new high representative for foreign policy will demonstrate bigger ambitions on the matter,” the Slovenian MEP stated.

The EU, he added, should launch negotiations with Macedonia, even though the country has certain problems and needs to pursue reforms in the judiciary, improve the freedom of the media and implement the Ohrid Framework Agreement.

“However, the biggest problem is the obstruction in the Parliament. The two sides there need to understand that they are responsible for the future of the country. Both the government and the opposition have to assume part of the responsibility. This is how the countries in Europe function and this is how Macedonia must function. Owing to their inefficiency, the country is faced with political problems,” stressed MEP Vajgl.

Furthermore, almost all of the speakers at the AFET meeting called Macedonia by its constitutional name, with the exception of several Greek MEPs. They urged the EU to be clear with regard to the name issue saying that it shouldn’t be used as an alibi for the lack of reforms.

All Western Balkan foreign ministers in the meeting underscored the clear perspective of the region to be admitted into the EU as soon as possible.