Skopje, 27 September 2024 (MIA) - Hungary is prepared to make use of its presidency of the Council of the European Union and mediate in the dispute with Bulgaria, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday, noting that he has presented a proposal for a solution to Prime Minister Hrisitjan Mickoski. Orban assessed the country’s decoupling from Albania on the EU path as a huge mistake and said the country must begin EU membership negotiations by the end of the year.

According to Orban, it would be possible for North Macedonia to move forward “if it reaches an agreement with Bulgaria in some way”.

“I have my own proposal for that, and I conveyed it to the Prime Minister. Whether the sides are ready to accept Hungary as a mediator, it’s their business, but we are ready, and we want to work towards a solution that would work for both Macedonia and Bulgaria. But that’s the business of the disputing parties, we are here to help them,” Orban said in answer to a journalist’s question at the joint press conference with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski on Friday in Ohrid.

Regarding the decoupling from Albania, Orban said “it is difficult to understand that a country is constantly being deceived with the beginning of membership negotiations, only for all other countries who started the process alongside them to make progress, while they are kept sidelined”.

“Once again, I would like to stress that national pride is the most important thing for a nation and the EU must take into account the national pride of all countries. What is currently happening is harming the national pride of the citizens of North Macedonia and this has been happening constantly over the past ten years,” Orban said.

Orban said the country should have become an EU member a long time ago, and the EU’s approach is “opening up wounds”.

“Our belief is that we should be building friendships and not creating wounds on the soul of a nation and that’s why I believe it is a great mistake that you are not an EU member state yet and it is also a great mistake that you are being decoupled from a country that they are expeditiously pushing through. That’s why the sole solution is that you must begin negotiations for EU membership by the end of the year,” Orban said.

According to PM Mickoski, the country mustn’t lose hope and be disappointed, stressing that “it is good that we have friends in the EU who want to amplify our voice within the EU”.

“I regret that this is happening and that we must once again be a victim of bilateralization instead of fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria. But we will continue to work hard and solve our domestic issues,” Mickoski said. 

Photo: MIA