Hard line from Athens

The attitude of Athens towards Skopje is predicted to be harsh in the near future, in the wake of the storm of reactions from the choice of the new president Gordana Silianovska-Davkova to call the country “Macedonia” during her inauguration – which she later attributed to ” act of individual right to self-determination and self-determination”, with her office assuring that “it will observe the official application of the constitutional name”.

Ahead of the June 9 ballot, the issue in Greece has turned into a field of political controversy. The official opposition demands a vote on the three pending Prespa Agreement memoranda, which it submitted to the Parliament as a law proposal, while the Greek Prime Minister clarifies that not ratifying the memoranda was a “conscious” choice by Greece, which constitutes a negotiating weapon, while he did reason and for “justification of Greek foreign policy”.

“From the heart of Macedonia, I will be absolutely clear. We had not voted for the Prespa Agreement. But if some people believe that they might not respect the Agreement, their path to Europe will remain closed and the memorandums will not be ratified,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said yesterday, clarifying that the Greek government will not ratify the memorandums as long as there is no agreement from the other side. side full compliance. “Greece will closely monitor the situation in North Macedonia” he stressed from Prague where Giorgos Gerapetritis was, sending a clear message to the new state and political leadership of Skopje: “We ask the government and the president of North Macedonia to fully implement the Prespa Agreement. We are open to discuss further, but concessions on prerequisites cannot be tolerated.”

On the way to the president

Pending the stance that the new government will choose to adopt on the issue when it is formed and given the already issued warnings from the EU and NATO, Athens has put under the microscope all possible levers of pressure in case Skopje chooses its way “disobedience”.

In any case, the road to full integration seems to be temporarily closed due to intense political… landslides. Silianovska’s statements leave wide open the possibility that the accession negotiations will be further delayed or even blocked. Much more so as the leader of the VMRO DPMNE – and next prime minister, except for a big surprise – Christian Mickoski, claimed that there is no violation of the Prespa Agreement by the president’s statements, maintaining the same right. In fact, he called on Athens to “stop the threats” and explained that his own government will not repeat the mistakes of the past: “If they think we have violated the Agreement, then there is an International Court.”

Bulgaria’s attitude

As far as Bulgaria is concerned, on the other hand, the fact that North Macedonia has not proceeded with the revision of its Constitution based on the provisions of the proposal submitted by France and adopted at the end of 2022 can be invoked. This fact will hardly change for the foreseeable future, as the revision requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, which is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, given that VMRO won 59 of the 120 seats, while another 6 were secured by a smaller party running on line of “left nationalism”.

However, those who deal with European and Balkan issues know that the road to the EU has never been wide open for the neighboring state. And this, despite the fact that it has already been 20 years since March 2004 when, under the Greek presidency, the application for membership was officially submitted, and despite the successive promises made to the governments and people of North Macedonia.

In fact it would be unfair to blame Skopje for the long delay. For the sake of truth, it was Emmanuel Macron who, in October 2019, had vetoed the start of accession negotiations arguing that the EU is forced to first solve its internal problems and revise its treaties and then move on. in enlargement. The president of France then invented the shape of the European Political Union, with the ambition to include in it and not in the EU most of the candidate states, leaving them to wait indefinitely in the “hall”.