Marta Kos: No Guarantees for Obstacle-free EU Path for North Macedonia after Constitutional Amendments

Marta Kos (BETAPHOTO/STA/Thierry Monasse)

Nobody can guarantee North Macedonia that, if it amended the Constitution now, there would be no more obstacles on its European path, stated the European Union’s commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos.

She said this in an interview to the European Newsroom (ENR) in response to a question of the MIA agency about whether the EU and the member countries could guarantee that there would be no new blockades after the amending of the Constitution, due to bilateral issues pertaining to identity, language or history.

“We understand that amending the Constitution is not an easy matter. We understand what is very human and understandable, that your country wishes to have guarantees after everything it has gone through. There can be no guarantees, but what I expect from all the member countries when bilateral issues exist is that talks should be conducted in good will and with a vision about reaching a compromise,” Kos stated.

She emphasized that this did not mean that the European Commission was not working on helping North Macedonia in initiating the (accession) negotiations, that she was personally engaged in the bilateral issue with Bulgaria and that she was to go to Sofia on April 16 to meet with Bulgarian politicians, and that she would contact the politicians in Skopje afterwards.