EU Path: Letter Issue being Analysed, Gashi on Constitution Changes Issue, Filipce-Rokas Meeting

When it comes to the issue of the letter to the EU for presenting new ideas to resume membership talks, PM Hristijan Mickoski said on Friday that the matter was still being analysed.

“Rushed steps are always, I would say, a bad move. Perhaps things should be digested a little so that we can sleep on it and, with cool heads, make the right decision,” he stressed.

The same day, Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi told Deutsche Welle Macedonian that though the ruling majority didn’t find including Bulgarians in the Constitution problematic, it asked for predictability of the accession process and guarantees that there would be no new conditions.

Regarding Hungarian PM Viktor Orban’s offer, though Gashi is optimistic that Skopje and Sofia will be able to reach a deal, he considers assistance from other countries to be welcome. According to the Speaker, VLEN’s six-month deadline has never been set in the context of leaving the ruling coalition if the changes are not made.

In that regard, he underlined that VMRO-DPMNE and VLEN were united when it came to EU membership and were intensively working to unblock the process. Nonetheless, SDSM is still concerned by the ruling structure’s policies on the EU path.

At Saturday’s meeting between the opposition party’s leader, Venko Filipce, and EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas, the former stated that there was no clear strategy by the cabinet when it came to the country’s EU road.