At Monday’s conference on the Western Balkans organised by Friends of Europe, President Stevo Pendarovski said the state leadership had received an offer to join the European Economic Area, adding that it had been refused because there was no other alternative to full-fledged EU membership. “Some of us in the region, I can only speak about North Macedonia, received an offer from very senior officials to become a European Economic Area member, I rejected this offer right away,” he pointed out. As the President explained, that type of thinking is disastrous in the long run.