North Macedonia begins negotiations to join the EU after 17 years of waiting

The EU gave North Macedonia the accession candidate status in December 2005. But since then he has left the Balkan country in the waiting room, where he has been 17 years without starting entry negotiations to the club.

Paradoxically, it has been the war in Ukraine that has now allowed the situation to be unblocked. The first dialogue session to become a full member of the club was held this Tuesday in Brussels. Albania – a candidate country since June 2014 – has also started accession negotiations at the same time, that will still last for years anyway.

How can this delay be explained, if both countries have fulfilled all the required requirements for years? First was the conflict over the name of the country with Greecewhich has a region that is also called Macedonia and that also dates back to the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia.

[Los Balcanes piden a la UE que no les relegue en beneficio de Ucrania para su entrada al club]

After the Balkan wars, the internationally accepted denomination was Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (or FYROM for its acronym in English). But in 2018 the prime ministers alexis tsipras Y Zoran Zayev reached an agreement on the name North Macedonia.

When the way seemed already clear to begin the negotiations, Bulgaria invoked its veto right, citing historical and cultural disputes, particularly as regards the language. A veto that has lasted more than two years and that has just been unlocked thanks to a compromise proposal from France, which was approved last weekend in the Macedonian parliament and which requires reforming the country’s Constitution.

Albanian had the misfortune that the EU linked its candidacy to that of North Macedonia, with which it has been left caught up in conflicts in which it has nothing to do.

Both countries complained of having been relegated by Brussels to the benefit of Ukraine, which gained candidate status in June. Both also denounce the growing influence of China and Russia in the Balkans, due to the spaces left by the EU. All of these factors have led to the current unlock.

The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenthanked your “abundant strategic patience” to the prime ministers of Albania, Edi Ramaand from North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevsky. “In these difficult times of the brutal war in Russia, you have shown again and again your attachment to European values, as true friends and partners,” he said.

“It is a great satisfaction that, after 17 years, today we finally start negotiations. We open new perspectives for our country and for the citizens”, said Kovacevski, who has called for a” rapid integration “for which his country is” prepared “.

“This new beginning for the region will mean prosperity and progress, and when there is progress in one country, that will stimulate progress in other neighbors,” says the Prime Minister of North Macedonia.

For his part, his Albanian counterpart has branded as “absurd situation” the EU’s blockade of accession negotiations in recent years. “We know that this is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. But things are as they are and it is good. We need it to continue building a democratic, strong and European Albania and a strong, democratic and open Western Balkans”, he affirms. Branch.

Accession negotiations are a long and complex process which includes a total of 35 chapters. Among them transport, agriculture, energy, economic and monetary policy or judiciary and fundamental rights. Both Albania and North Macedonia will have to amend their national laws in each chapter to incorporate all EU standards.