Skopje, 30 June 2023 (MIA) – North Macedonia’s strategic goal is full-fledged EU membership, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said in an interview for German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

“The country’s Euro-integration process guarantees the region’s security and stability, but also a better economic cooperation, and a single market of almost half a billion people,” said Kovachevski.

According to the Government, in the interview Kovachevski also spoke about the upcoming political decisions which are set to be made in the country and which the citizens’ European future depends on.

“The vote is not just for our Constitution, but also for the country’s European future. This decision that we need to make now is in order to avoid delaying the rest of the process. The veto for our membership has always come from outside, now it is threatening to come from inside for the first time,” said Kovachevski.

“When we became independent after the breakup of Yugoslavia, our economy was much stronger than the economies of Bulgaria, Czechia, Slovakia or Poland. At that time, it was unthinkable for the citizens of Macedonia to go to one of these countries in order to work there. This is precisely what is happening today. The economies of these countries haven’t only strengthened due to their performances. On the contrary, this happened because these countries became EU members, with a single market of almost half a billion people. This is why membership is North Macedonia’s strategic goal. We want to live in an EU member state,” said the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Kovachevski stressed that Germany is a great supporter of North Macedonia during the EU accession process, as well as its biggest economic partner.

“I am very grateful to Germany and Chancellor Scholz for their support on our path to the EU. Germany is North Macedonia’s biggest economic partner. We have 200 German companies in our country. Half of our external trade is with Germany. Around 20.000 to 30.000 of my compatriots live in Germany,” said the Prime Minister.

Kovachevski in the interview for the German newspaper said that North Macedonia’s EU accession talks are of essential importance in the current geopolitical and security circumstances and in dealing with the influences of countries who don’t want to see a stable and an EU-integrated Western Balkans.

Photo: Government