President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova met with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as part of her regional tour.
Siljanovska-Davkova assessed the visit as encouraging and stimulating for the European reintegration of the region.
Ursula von der Leyen, in turn, began the conversation by expressing the EU’s open interest in the Western Balkans, due to its natural European affiliation in geographical, historical and cultural terms, but also due to the tectonic changes in the international order and the increased global and European security threats.
The Macedonian President reaffirmed her commitment to fulfilling the strategic goal – full membership in the EU.
She compared the Baltics and the Balkans, pointing out the obvious difference: in the Baltics, the EU member states stood behind their neighbors, and in the Balkans, some EU members use their privileged status to condition and even block the neighbor’s political path to Brussels.
Once again, she pointed out the enormous importance for the region of: SEPA, Western Balkan roaming, “Vezilka – National Center for Artificial Intelligence”, “Horizon”, as well as the great expectations from the infrastructure projects: “Corridor 8” and “Corridor 10”.
Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova warned of the danger of replicating the precedent of bilateralization of the Macedonian integration process, outside the Copenhagen criteria, not only within the regional framework, but also more broadly.
At the same time, she recalled the disrespect, i.e. violation of some fundamental principles and values of the basic constitutive acts of the EU that guarantee the national and cultural identity of states and nations, as well as the dignity and integrity of citizens. She also expressed readiness for Macedonian-Bulgarian talks after the local elections.
Siljanovska-Davkova expects help from the Union in finding a creative solution to unblock Macedonian integration, because as she emphasized, the acceptance of the Western Balkan countries into the EU is not only a matter of enlargement, but also affects the security and stability of Europe. The initiative to reform the decision-making process in the EU, which would also include issues related to the enlargement of the Union, that is, the introduction of qualified majority voting, would be a brave decision for Siljanovska-Davkova, which would lead to a step forward in the European integration.
According to her, we must direct our energy towards judicial reforms and the uncompromising fight against corruption and crime. President Ursula von der Leyen stressed the clear will of all 27 EU member states for accelerated reintegration of the Balkans and welcomed the significant progress achieved within the Growth Plan, emphasizing that the country deserves to move forward.
