Veles, 16 October 2024 (MIA) — Commenting on German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's statement that constitutional amendments were crucial for the start of North Macedonia's EU negotiations, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski said the government's position was that no constitutional amendments would be adopted without guarantees there would be no further vetoes on the country's accession path.

"Our position is very clear, direct, open: There will be no constitutional changes under Bulgarian dictation. The only way to solve this is for us to get a guarantee this will not happen to us every six months so Macedonia faces shocks of new vetoes again and again," Nikoloski said in response to reporters' questions in Veles.

Nikoloski recalled the government's proposal to delay the implementation of the amendments until the EU membership protocol was ratified in the Bulgarian Parliament. 

"If Bulgaria really wants Macedonia to join the EU, I don't see what a difference three years would make to them. Everyone says we are ready and we will complete the negotiations in three years," he said, adding that if accession talks started this fall, they would end in 2027, when the Bulgarian Parliament could ratify the membership protocol.

"So I don't see what difference this makes for the Bulgarian government," he said. "Two years have already passed since that harmful French proposal, so I think, with our proposal, we are putting the Bulgarian politicians in the clear. 

"This proposal has been met with a lot of approval and understanding in many EU capitals and what remains now is for the elections in Bulgaria to end and for us to see what position the new Bulgarian government will take."

To a journalist's comment that Berlin did not seem to approve of the proposal, Nikoloski said he did not agree.

"I don't have that impression. According to the minister [Baerbock], the French proposal was accepted by the previous government. The proposal is bad, but it has been accepted. But do we, as a government, accept it? We do not accept it, so there will be no constitutional changes under Bulgarian dictation," Nikoloski said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, after her meeting with Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timcho Mucunski in Berlin on Tuesday, said she was in favor of abandoning decision-making by consensus in the EU, but until that happened, North Macedonia had to honor compromises made, Deutsche Welle reported.

"Introducing the Bulgarian minority into your Constitution is the last step before opening the first negotiation cluster with the EU," Baerbock said after meeting with her Macedonian counterpart in Berlin, a day after the Berlin Process summit during which Western Balkan leaders concluded several agreements to improve regional cooperation in economy and education.

At the press conference after the meeting with Mucunski, Baerbock spoke about the constitutional change as a key step toward North Macedonia's opening negotiations with the EU, although she herself said she was in favor of dropping the consensus requirement, especially regarding ​​enlargement.

She said she hoped some progress would be made after Bulgaria's parliamentary elections at the end of this month and encouraged leaders to take politically responsible and brave steps to do the best for their country despite negative public sentiment.

"We, Germany, want to help this happen regarding North Macedonia and Bulgaria," Baerbock said. She said this was not about injustice toward the country but about honoring EU rules.

"Those are the EU rules. Decisions are made unanimously. This is not about any injustice. We don't agree with our European partners on everything, but those are the rules. Until those rules change, which I personally am in favor of, they should be honored," the German foreign minister said. mr/