The biggest message that emerged from the Tivat summit is that the EU enlargement process is alive, dynamic and urgent, and that candidate countries should not miss this opportunity, said EU Ambassador MichalisRokasduring his visit to Shtip on Wednesday. According to Rokas, from the non-paper, proposed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, it can be clearly seen that the first thing Macedonia needs to do is adopt the constitutional amendments.
“We can clearly see that this is a document that describes all the steps that need to happen in order for negotiations to begin, but for those steps to be implemented, of course, negotiations need to be held first. Although I am not an expert in interpreting such documents, I think that the first thing that needs to happen is for the constitutional amendments to be adopted in order for negotiations to begin. In fact, the negotiating framework itself that was agreed in 2022 says so, and then the next step is the intergovernmental conference, which will be followed by the start of official negotiations. I am convinced that the Republic of North Macedonia will indeed be able to progress very quickly on its European integration path, depending on the implementation of the reforms as part of the agenda,” Rokas said.
The EU ambassador says that he is convinced that the moment the country starts delivering reforms at an accelerated pace, especially reforms in the area of the rule of law and the fight against corruption, and fulfills the obligations undertaken since 2022, the integration process will accelerate. He said that he received assurances from Speaker Gashi that the Parliament is working on adopting the laws from the reform agenda and that by the end of June they will try to pass the laws required in line with the reform processes.
