TIRANA, September 27 – Foreign Minister of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, said that the best guarantee for the Macedonian identity is the country to join the EU after it entered NATO. In an interview for the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Osmani assessed that North Macedonia is the most harassed country in the EU enlargement process.
Asked if there are any guarantees that Bulgaria will not set further demands after the possible adoption of the constitutional amendments, the FM says no one can know what the next day will bring, Mia reported.
“Unfortunately, we have often been disappointed and the dynamics in Bulgarian politics is so insecure that no one knows what the next day will bring. I am rather certain that Bulgaria will continually to formulate new demands, but I believe the EU agenda is important, nothing else. We reached a compromise with Bulgaria, an action plan on minorities. We want to shift the discussion from historic interpretations and identity issues to human and minority rights, because this is what we are good at. North Macedonia has built a unique model of a functional multiethnic democracy, despite all the skeptics who believed this is not possible in the Balkans,” said Osmani.
According to him, the surveys showing that a large majority of the citizens are against the constitutional changes are misinterpreted.
“The citizens reject the incorporation of identity-political conflicts in the EU enlargement process but the constitutional amendments do not pose such threat, rather strengthen and enlarge the multiethnic democracy,” Osmani concludes./EWB- Argumentum.al
