SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
During a debate at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) on Tuesday, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos voiced conviction that at least one country in the enlargement process would reach the finish line during the term of the new Commission (2024-2029).
The enlargement mood, she pointed out, is visibly much more positive when compared to the previous years. For the first time, the Commissioner underlined, there is a realistic perspective that at “at least one, in my view, another two or three countries” can reach the finish line.
According to her, though Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has created an opportunity with regards to enlargement, there will be not so-called political discounts. In that regard, Commissioner Kos pointed out that enlargement remained a merit-based process. Montenegro and Albania, she said, are currently the leaders with regards to the integration process.
During the debate, Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz, who’s the Rapporteur on North Macedonia, asked the Commissioner directly whether options were being considered to change the unanimous decision-making process within the Council to prevent bilateralisation of the process.
“If we do not fulfil our promise to move on, to close chapters, to move on with the accession process, we’re frustrating the population, we’re frustrating the political class. And this has happened in North Macedonia. It might be very legitimate to have bilateral issues between countries, but the way we’re acting today is that even a very small fraction of political representatives can actually stall the whole process by just provoking the neighbour country”, he noted.
The Commissioner stated that she’d said during her hearing that she would do everything to prevent bilaterals from interfering in the negotiations process.
“But it is already happening and it will happen also in the future. So, the task of all of us is how to tackle, how to solve the bilateral issues when they appear”, she noted.
