A few days ahead of the European Commission’s presentation on 5 February of a new methodology for the EU accession process, North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, Bujar Osmani, was in Brussels on Tuesday 28 January to reiterate the importance of opening EU accession negotiations with his country in March, after years of waiting and false hopes and a few weeks before the parliamentary elections in his country. (Interview by Camille-Cerise Gessant)
Agence Europe - After June 2018, June 19, October 2019. Do you think March could be the good moment to have the green light for the opening of the accession negotiations ?
Bujar Osmani - Not only the good moment but the logical moment. After the shock of the fiasco in October, what good happened is that we've seen unprecedented wave of solidarity from the entire European community, which put at position of unease countries who are hesitating to send the right messages to the region and especially to Northern Macedonia and Albania.
Now is the only logical time since if it happens in March, it would happen in the mandate when all the difficult political compromises were made. So it would be a logical consequence of that way of thinking.
EU is all about reconciliation, about creating partnership with neighbors, doing compromises, accepting diversity and what we did in this mandate as a country is exactly that.
We signed Prespa and Bulgarian agreements. We did the language law in the country. So all preconditions to be a modern European country and after meeting also the reform goals set by EU the only logical outcome of this process should be start for accession negociations in March.
You will have parliamentary election in April. Do you think the (non) decision can have an impact on them?
Not having a decision will be the biggest interference in the elections since during this mandate we took a political risk and we based our decision on this promise from EU.
We told our people in the referendum question that we have an agreement with the EU. If we deliver, EU will deliver. So not delivering by EU during this mandate would be the biggest interference in the election and will have a huge impact.
Are you are talking with countries that are not really keen to open the negotiations. Do you have in particular some contacts with the French ?
Yes, we do communicate. I will pay a visit in beginning of February.
It's good that France immediately rolled up the non paper that revived the process again and the debate continued to now over adopting this new methodology. It's important that in their non paper they are committed to enlargement as the only alternative for the Western Balkans.
This process is not enlargement but actually a completion of a EU. I hope that on the fifth (of february) when the Commission will announce that it will launch the methodology, things will go smoothly. So we can have an opportunity for a substantial debate on the March council and a decision
What do you expect from the new methodology? Do you think it was important to change it ?
If Member States think that it's important for them, of course, we have to accept it. We see this accession process more as a mutual adjustment, EU is adjusting to accept us and we adjust it to be accepted by EU.
It's important what we heard from the Commissioner that there will be some principles in this methodology.
One being credibility. This is very important since after October summit, the credibility of EU was shaken in the region and we need to work to restore it, which is vital for the prospect of the region.
The second principle being the political steering of the process. So the accession negotiations will be less bureaucratic, administrative with more political through political engagement of the candidate countries into the process.
And we were very glad to hear the dynamism is part of this new proposed methodology since the fear in our countries was whether a new methodology will lengthen the process limitless infinity.
Are you afraid that this new methodology can also delay the decision on opening negociation?
I think majority of member States considered that processes should go hand in hand or be separated.
We do understand that EU is changing, that people sensitivity about enlargement is changing and we want to be sensitive to this sensitivity of EU citizens.
But it's not the same whether the decision is in March or is in June. If it's in March, it's part of the narrative that will send the positive messages to the region that if you behave in a European manner you will get rewarded by Europe. If it's in June, it will be only a bureaucratic process of assessment whether you have met the conditions or not.
When the commissioner Varhelyi was in Skopje (EUROPE 12405/19), he expected a decision from the Parliament about the reform of the prosecution office before April elections. Is it realistic ?
The commission had a clear recommendation to start accession negotiation saying that we have met all the criteria and the Council did not add any new one. The new law on public prosecution is more of an unwritte expectations from some Member States.
We are trying to work now in our parliament. If this is the key to open the door for accession negotiations, the opposition should use it since they will share the ownership of the key that will open the accession negotiations.
The accession aspiration is overarching commitment of all political parties in the entire political spectrum in country.
What do you expect from the Zagreb summit in May?
Zagreb summit has some symbolic and substantial meanings.
The symbolic is that it's happening 20 years after the Zagreb summit of 2000 when we started this journey as a country. And we hope we get to the next phase just before that summit. It will show continuous commitment of the EU member States toward the Balkans after Sofia summit.
If the so-called a Marshall plan for economic renewal of the region would be launched in this Zagreb summit that would mean EU is tackling the most important gap in our development. This is to try to speed up the economic convergence between the region and European union.
Last week in Skopje, the president of the European council Charles Michel asked for more regional cooperation. Why is it so complicated to have this cooperation which could also which could help for the economic development ?
We are advancing quite a lot in terms of regional cooperation.
Don't forget that this is a region that just 20 years ago was divided between war fronts and with a complete lack of communication between the political leaders and people.
And now this is completely different. There are dozens of regional initiatives and the leaders meet, I will say on monthly basis discussing how liberalize the bureaucratic obstruction of trade and the movement of goods and people throughout the region.
We have the Berlin process, we have the regional economic zone and this new mini Schengen initiative, which is still in a tentative to be successful.
So the region is cooperating, but it cannot make it by itself. Therefore, we need close cooperation in EU. This is a region that geographically, historically and culturally belong to Europe and it has to be part of European union. It is just the missing piece of the puzzle of a European security and economic development.
Do you think that North Macedonia will be soon member of NATO ?
We are de facto member of NATO. We are waiting for the Spain parliament to finalize the ratification. We are waiting the technical procedures of formation of the commission for foreign affairs so they can proceed with ratification. We are sure that in few weeks we will be full fledged 30th member of NATO and we hope so to happen before the scheduled elections of in April.