site.btaNorth Macedonia PM Kovachevski: Constitutional Change May Be Implemented Before or During Second Intergovernmental Conference

"The German chancellor reiterated the guarantees for North Macedonia's negotiations with the EU, which are already included in the negotiating framework, and that no other conditions can be set", North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said on Thursday at the end of his official visit to Germany. His comments were made on the occasion of Wednesday's statements made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during their joint press conference in Berlin. In the negotiating framework of the Republic of North Macedonia, which is the result of a consensus of all 27 member states, there are clear deadlines and steps for action and one of them is that the second intergovernmental conference will be held automatically as soon as the screening process of North Macedonia is completed and the amendments to the constitution of the country are adopted, which will put the Bulgarians in the basic law.

"As for the negotiation process itself, each member state can give comments on the reforms and progress of the country", Kovachevski said. "We don't need anyone to tell us and we can see for ourselves that the Vardar is the most polluted river in Europe, taking care of the environment is also one of the criteria for joining the EU. We have an agreed loan for the construction of a sewage treatment plant in Skopje, but the Mayor elected by VMRO-DPMNE is not working on this project. In this part, any country can make remarks. The other issues of bilateral nature are included in the bilateral agreement with Bulgaria and they do not affect EU integration," North Macedonia's PM added.

According to him, no country could implement the roadmap in the part on minority rights as North Macedonia could and he expressed pride in "the legislation and the way they are settled" in the country, and regarding this criterion North Macedonia will show that it is a multinational and multicultural society "which is Europe in one country".

In his words, he would rather focus on "rule of law reforms and the fight against corruption".

Regarding the advancement of the constitutional change proposals, Kovachevski expressed satisfaction that after the visit to Brussels of leader of opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, he "no longer talked about the options he was proposing after the leadership meeting, but about what his plans are when they start governing" and reiterated that the opposition should be involved in the process of voting on the constitutional changes.

The PM pointed out that the postponement of the entry into force of the constitutional changes can be done within the negotiating framework either on the day itself or the dat before the second intergovernmental conference. 

He specified that he and Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov would probably meet at the NATO summit in Vilnius.

"Petkov and I found common ground last year to open the way (for the Republic of North Macedonia to negotiate with the EU). We are talking about a cutting-edge politician who wants to talk about the future, about new technologies, about improving cooperation, and these are the topics on which we should build cooperation. Bulgaria must show at all levels of its political activity that it stands behind the whole region entering the EU. I believe that all the parties that are in the ruling coalition (in Bulgaria) are committed to this," Kovachevski stressed.