The citizens set the course for the country 32 years ago, in the direction of NATO and EU, while the constitutional amendments, in line with the Negotiating Framework, are something that can only be accomplished by the Macedonian politicians, and not someone from abroad, said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski on Friday, adding that this is the first time the country could face an internal veto on its Euro-Atlantic integrations.

Skopje, 28 July 2023 (MIA) – The citizens set the course for the country 32 years ago, in the direction of NATO and EU, while the constitutional amendments, in line with the Negotiating Framework, are something that can only be accomplished by the Macedonian politicians, and not someone from abroad, said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski on Friday, adding that this is the first time the country could face an internal veto on its Euro-Atlantic integrations.

“If North Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integrations were until now vetoed from abroad, now the veto is coming from inside the country for the first time, from political parties who sometimes claim to be in favor of integration, but have historically proven they oppose Euro-Atlantic integrations. The most shocking thing is that for the first time we have a politician, who after 32 years of independence, publicly says that the European agenda is not the same as the Macedonian agenda. No politician in the country has said this before. At the beginning of this week, the leader of VMRO-DPMNE said that the European agenda is not the same as the Macedonian agenda. This means he has some other plan for the country’s integration and should explain it,” said Kovachevski.

The PM stressed that the constitutional amendments are a task that can only be completed by the Macedonian politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, and added that they are a part of the Negotiating Framework adopted by 27 EU member states and adopted by Parliament. He noted that according to the public discourse, there is not a single remark on the amendments, because they don’t impact any questions of identity.

“We are talking about a technical amendment to the Constitution, which adds parts of other people who weren’t previously a part of the Preamble, but were included as ‘others’ in the Preamble, and this practically dismisses all the lies and hysteria that have been spread in the past year over an alleged Bulgarization, assimilation of Macedonia etc. You can see that this isn’t a part of the public discourse anymore, except for some paid Russian bots, so-called analysts, and even some politicians, who must speak like that due to the finances,” said Kovachevski.

Kovachevski added that public discussions over the constitutional amendments have been led with all political parties, with representatives of the leaders of the opposition parties, who expressed their positions.

“Other people, including parts of the Bulgarian people, will be added to our Constitution. We are talking about 3.400 citizens who self-identify as Bulgarians and live in the Republic of North Macedonia,” said Kovachevski.

Regarding the deadlines, Kovachevski said the Negotiating Framework is very clear and states that once the screening process and the constitutional amendments are completed, then the Second Intergovernmental Conference is scheduled on the very next day, after which, he said, the chapters of the first cluster – Fundamentals, are opened.

Asked what will happen if the amendments aren’t adopted by November 30, Kovachevski said “if they are for example adopted in February next year, then that is when the Intergovernmental Conference will be held as well.”

Kovachevski also said that the Framework will not be renegotiated, pointing to the statements of all EU representatives, EC members and Presidents of EU member states who have visited North Macedonia.

“It’s a utopia and lying to the people when some politician, especially from the opposition, claims that they will negotiate a new Framework. We saw this for 11 years when they were negotiating, instead of finding a solution with Greece in 2008, they told the people they would negotiate, renegotiate, and what did we get in the end? We didn’t get anything,” said Kovachevski, adding that the country began the process together with Croatia.

The Prime Minister stressed there is no other alternative for the country except for the European and the Euro-Atlantic one.