Skopje, 3 November 2025 (MIA) – Your progress is significant and outstanding. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe supports and continues to support North Macedonia on its EU integration path, said Theodoros Rousopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in a speech delivered in Parliament on Monday as part of his visit to the country.

In the past 30 years of being a member of the Council of Europe, he told MPs, North Macedonia has shown that moral maturity isn’t measured in greatness but in its capacity to listen, respect and accept. 

“I’ve visited your country many times in various capacities – as a journalist especially when I was a war correspondent during the 1990s before I arrived again as a minister from Greece. In those early years I had the privilege on several occasions to meet with one of your first presidents, the late Kiro Gligorov, a stateman remembered for his calm moderation and unwavering faith in peaceful independence and coexistence. He once said: ‘Our future is in Europe, but our responsibility is here, we should prove that small nations can live in peace and democracy.’ And you succeeded. Your progress is significant and outstanding. As President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and as a politician coming from neighbouring Greece, I’m very glad and honoured to be a witness of you being a living proof of his words,” said Rousopoulos.

75 years after the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights and 30 years after North Macedonia became a member of the Council of Europe, he noted, the story for Europe resumes.

“Every generation must write its own chapter not to change the opinion but to keep the promise alive – the promise that the law will protect the weak and that the truth will outlive propaganda, that human dignity will remain and that it will serve as measure for civilisation,” said Rousopoulos.

Referring to Winston Churchill’s quote “the Balkans produce more history than they can consume”, Rousopoulos said the Balkans knows history better than anyone else all the while producing more wisdom. 

“The Balkans has shown that the memories of pain can serve as discipline for peace and that coexistence can be learned, that European unity is not a gift from geography, but a choice of will,” said Rousopoulos.

Mentioning geopolitical developments, he said democracy is losing its emotional gravitation, stressing that democracy should be animated and that the Council of Europe remains a place of dialogue.

Photo: screenshot