Skopje, 15 August 2025 (MIA) - Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told journalists Friday in Shtip that the Government will absolutely never withdraw from negotiations with the European Union, adding that the Government’s goal is for the country to become a part of the Union.

Asked by journalists to comment on the initiative filed by former MP and former DOM leader Liljana Popovska disputing the Protocol from the second meeting of the joint historical commission with Bulgaria at the Constitutional Court, Mickoski said it is best to ask the former MP herself about the issue, but also to wait for the Court’s decision.

“We will absolutely never withdraw from the negotiations with the EU, that is not this Government’s goal, on the contrary, our goal is to be a part of the EU. Regarding the initiative by former MP Popovska, she should be the one to provide an answer, but let’s wait for the Constitutional Court to adopt a final decision on the initiative,” Mickoski said.

On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court said it formed a case in which the Protocol from the second meeting of the joint historical commission with Bulgaria has been disputed.

Former lawmaker and DOM party leader Liljana Popovska filed the initiative before the Court, noting that the Protocol, signed on 17 June 2022, violates the Constitution and claiming its form and content is inappropriate and goes beyond the frames of a legal act by elaborating an article from an agreement between two countries and producing actions deemed detrimental to the Macedonian people, language and country.

Popovska wants to see the Protocol annulled, in accordance with the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law on Treaties, by which an annulment is enabled in a case that goes against the imperative norm of general international law.

"The Protocol violates the Constitution because it has not been ratified in the Parliament, and was not published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia within the constitutional deadline. In addition, it is claimed that it violates Articles 6, 16, 19, 20 and 26 of the Law on Conclusion, Ratification and Execution of International Agreements, since the procedure over its arrangement, adoption by the Government and its signing was not observed," reads the initiative.

The initiative notes that the Protocol is not a legal act confirmed by the Parliament but minutes from a meeting of the commission, adding that unlike the procedure implemented in North Macedonia, which it claims to lack transparency and is flawed, a parliament committee in Bulgaria discussed it on 23 June 2022, a month before the countries' foreign ministers signed the Protocol, followed by the adoption of the entire package from the French Proposal for the start of the accession negotiations with North Macedonia, including the Protocol, at a plenary session on 24 June 2022.

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