Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski believes that we cannot discuss European integration if we do not want to have a Treaty on good neighborliness with our neighbors. He does not support a referendum that would annul the Good Neighborliness Treaty with Bulgaria, because, as he says, it would halt the country’s European integration. That, the President stresses, would be the same as believing that we can cancel the Prespa Agreement with Greece, and believing that we can remain a member of NATO. That is not possible, claims Pendarovski.
“This is not my ad hoc view, it is based on arguments and the thought process of what it might lead to if that referendum is successful. So that there is no confusion, let me repeat once more. If you challenge or try to challenge through a referendum the bilateral Treaty with Bulgaria and the European integration and negotiations, it is the same as someone telling you that you can challenge or cancel the Agreement with Greece – Prespa in a referendum and remain a member of NATO , it’s impossible. So, let’s have no illusions, bilateral agreements with neighbors and good neighborly relations as they call them in the EU are one of the key prerequisites, always have been, for the integration of any country not only from this region, but the entire post-communist world after 1990,” said Pendarovski.
