Skopje, 2 September 2025 (MIA) - SDSM will have a working version of the declaration expected to outline red lines within the Euro-integrations by the end of the week, said party leader Venko Filipche on Tuesday, noting that despite the election campaign, political stakeholders need to sit down and formalize the path ahead in the country’s Euro-integrations.

“The document is being drafted. I believe that we will have a working version by the end of the week. We will present it to many stakeholders, all political parties, to our strategic partners, the public, experts,” Filipche said at a press conference in Parliament.

Filipche said he and SDSM believe that issues of top national interest and the country’s strategic goal – EU membership, should not be a subject of daily political bickering.

“We’re not calculating, there are no cunning moves, no tricks. I believe that if VMRO-DPMNE and the Prime Minister approach the issue with the same seriousness, and I see no reason why they wouldn’t, then I believe we’ll find a solution. Everything that has been done in the context of EU integration has been done in the context of the national interests,” the SDSM leader said.

Now, Filipche said, we are taking a step forward and trying to reach a national consensus on the issue.

“What the EU is asking of us is not just coming from Bulgaria, it is an EU document, from Brussels, and it is essentially the result of numerous negotiations in a long process. I understand the citizens’ concern, and in a way, they expressed those concerns during last year’s elections, in how they voted in that context when it came to SDSM versus VMRO-DPMNE and I believe we mustn’t ignore these concerns. I also believe that in no document are our national interests threatened, nor has any national betrayal occurred,” Filipche said in answer to a journalist’s question.

MIA file photo