Skopje, 23 December 2025 (MIA) — Whose best interest is it in, for us to be outside the EU, if not the third powers'? Who has opened the door for the third powers? Is it possible it could be an EU member state, our close neighbor? How can the EU pretend to be a geopolitical union while keeping our country and the Western Balkans in a geopolitical vacuum? Macedonian EU integration is a textbook example of the consequences of neglecting the procedure that should guarantee democracy, President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova said earlier Tuesday in her annual address in Parliament.

President Siljanovska Davkova said the members of the previous Parliament had not seen the second protocol of the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria. She said politicians she had talked with about the issue seemed to be hearing about it for the first time. 

"I wonder if we might have had a different negotiating framework and conclusions if the EU and the European Council leaders had been made aware of this in a timely and appropriate fashion," she said.

According to the president, politicians who used to be in power should have built a political consensus at home first and foremost – and the country should learn from neighboring countries who unanimously uphold the declarations adopted in their parliaments.

"Disagreement on issues of national interest has turned us into a weak state," Siljanovska Davkova said. 

"Double standards have led us to this strange situation," she said, adding that the public was ambivalent toward the EU — both believing that the country may join the EU but also doubting it would ever happen.

She said there was a way out of the situation; it would take political will on the EU's part, however.

"We proposed several ways to solve it," the president said. "The EU should choose one or find its own creative solution to unblock the process. If there is a solution for Ukraine and for Moldova, it should be easy to find one for us, too," Siljanovska Davkova said.

In her speech in Parliament, she also sent a message to the EU that by changing the Constitution without any clear guarantees from the EU and Bulgaria, and without any protective mechanisms, the country risked emerging from the process with a "stripped down, eroded identity and sovereignty, national and cultural." She called on all lawmakers to support national interests no matter what party they belonged to.

Siljanovska Davkova also said the EU's progress report had confirmed that the country had a stable economy and a higher alignment with European legislation than any other country in the region as well as 100% percent alignment with the EU's foreign and security policy. 

However, the president noted, there had been limited progress since 2017-20, when the country received more favorable evaluation in the respective EU progress reports. She recalled that the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria and the Prespa Agreement with Greece were signed and ratified at that time.

"So the real obstacle to the European integration path is not the Copenhagen criteria or reforms, but our acceptance of solutions and conditions not related to the rule of law," she said. 

"What is this new requirement for political readiness for accession, or political maturity, if not a de facto new political criterion introduced to measure the candidate country's ability to build a stable political consensus for EU membership in an environment of deep political and party polarization?" 

"In the case of Macedonian European integration, the problem is not administrative but lies in the constitutional amendments. We are a technically aligned but politically blocked candidate for membership, according to numerous experts and reports," the president said.

She said it seemed some EU candidate countries were being fast-tracked for EU membership not only because of their reforms but also because of the EU's political will. She added that the country's constitutional changes, however, seemed to carry "more weight than crucial reforms." 

Pointing out that the country had been given "a very high political bill," Siljanovska Davkova recalled the demand to introduce the Bulgarians into the Constitution as the latest condition for membership.

"In what article of the Treaty of Good Neighborliness and Friendship," she asked, "does it say we need to change the Constitution so we can start negotiations? 

"Can a protocol signed by two foreign ministers, playing consuls as it were, amend an international agreement? 

"And can that 'protocol' — synonymous with 'blotter' — become part of the negotiating framework and conclusions? Become the reason for changing our Constitution?" 

According to the president, if the EU's constitutional experts looked into Bulgaria's constitution, they would see where the problem regarding ​​minority rights was. She also recalled the 2008 Venice Commission recommendations for Bulgaria, which requested that their Constitution be amended by including more than a general non-discrimination clause. 

Additionally, Siljanovska Davkova reiterated that Bulgaria had not implemented European Court of Human Rights judgments and kept denying Macedonians their right to form cultural associations.

President Siljanovska Davkova's annual address in Parliament was attended by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, Constitutional Court President Darko Kostadinovski, Chief of Defense Sashko Lafchiski as well as representatives of the judiciary, the religious communities and the diplomatic corps. mr/