Skopje, 15 May 2025 (MIA) - At a joint press conference Thursday with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, the President of the European Council, António Costa, said the country’s Euro-integration process has taken too much time and now is the time to deliver results. “North Macedonia has done a lot of work, you need to stay the course,” he stressed.

“The accession process is more of a marathon than a sprint, it is a demanding process, it can be frustrating at times, like it has been for all previous candidates. But, all of them achieved the goal, and certainly you will achieve it too. With your determination, hard work and cooperation we will make it all the way, bypassing hurdles,” the President of the European Council said.

Costa underscored the enlargement of the European Union as the best geostrategic investment in peace and stability. He also commended the work made by the country and its Government on the reform agenda and “the progress already achieved”. 

“I encourage the Prime Minister to pursue his efforts to unlock further progress. Dear Hristijan, you can count on us, the European Union, we stand ready to help you seize this momentum. It is now crucial to press ahead with the reforms and invest in the rule of law and the fight against corruption. I would also like to acknowledge your alignment with our common foreign and security policy and your support of Ukraine,” stressed Costa.

Asked whether the EU can provide guarantees on the country’s accession path, Costa said the country has the support of Brussels, stressing it is time to deliver what has been agreed.

“This process took too much time, and now it’s time to deliver. And to deliver, we need to walk at the same time in two parallel dimensions. It is about concrete results for North Macedonia and the citizens from North Macedonia, this is why the Reform Agenda is so important, the Growth Plan is so important, and to concretize investments like the Corridor VIII or modernize the Corridor X can give concrete results to your country and for your citizens. At the same time, we need to overcome this process of accession, and for this it’s necessary to make some reforms, but also to deliver on what was agreed in 2022. And, I know how difficult this is,” Costa said.

The President of the European Council reiterated his commendations for the country’s past efforts to move the accession process forward, noting that now is the time to conclude the process with the next steps. 

“Prime Minister Mickoski knows he can count on me, he can count on the European Union to facilitate that we turn the page and move forward. It is the reason why I visited Bulgaria two weeks ago and when you ask what kind of guarantees we have, it is clear – what is agreed is agreed, we have nothing more to agree. Now we need to deliver what we have agreed and there is no more room to ask nothing more,” Costa stressed.

Quizzed if the EU has a plan B to overcome Bulgaria’s demands, Costa said plan A should not be undermined and the focus should be on its delivery.

“We know what the Copenhagen criteria are, we know what the previous decisions by the European Council are, we know what was agreed in 2022, and we must deliver on this. I understand perfectly when the Prime Minister said: we have changed already our flag, the name of our country, we changed already once the Constitution, and now it’s necessary to be insured that nobody comes to ask us more things than it was previously agreed. And I fully agree with him – what is agreed is agreed, now we need to deliver on this point. We don’t need plan B, we just need to deliver on plan A as is our focus, it’s my focus, for sure it is the focus of Prime Minister Mickoski and certainly should be the focus of the other 27 members of the European Union,” Costa said.

The President of the European Council visited Skopje on Thursday as part of his trip to the Western Balkans. Together with PM Mickoski, he will fly to Tirana later in the day, where Costa will host a dinner for the Western Balkan leaders. The two will also attend the meeting of the European Political Community in the Albanian capital on Friday.

Photo: MIA