Skopje: Negotiations More Important than EU Membership | Beta Briefing

Skopje: Negotiations More Important than EU Membership

Source: Beta
Archive / News | 22.11.21 | access_time 11:14

Bujar Osmani (Photo: Print Screen YouTube)

The foreign minister of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, has said that the European Union is on its way to losing its credibility in the Western Balkans and, if it wanted to renew it, it should open pre-accession negotiations with Skopje and Tirana.

"That is the cheapest investment the EU can do to ensure that the region moves forward in a good direction," Osmani told the media in Brussels on Nov. 19. He said that the "litmus test" for this loss of credibility was North Macedonia which, as he stated, had fulfilled all of the criteria for starting the negotiations, without ever being recognized or rewarded.

"Therefore, in the eyes of the people of the region, that means: If they failed, why wouldn't we," Osmani was quoted as saying by the EurActiv Srbija portal. Osmani also stated that it was not possible to solve complicated issues like Bosnia and Herzegovina or relations between Kosovo and Serbia, before first solving the European prospects of Albania and North Macedonia.

"It is North Macedonia that is the key to solving the crisis in the Western Balkans. When the countries of the region see that it works, that you can have a successful multi-ethnic society, they will follow that road," Osmani stated, adding that he hoped that Bulgaria would retract its veto on the start of pre-accession negotiations between Skopje and Brussels, after the constructive engagement of Skopje and for the sake of the credibility of the EU and the region's stability.

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