Siarto asked Bulgaria not to hinder Macedonia on the European path

 

 For Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Siarto, who is visiting Skopje, what is happening in the European Union around the Macedonia is an "unfair treatment". He did not spare a word to show how dissatisfied and disappointed Budapest is with the lack of a solution to the talks on Macedonia and Albania, but focused mainly on Brussels instead of Bulgaria, the Nezavisen newspaper said. However, Siarto appealed to Bulgaria not to raise more obstacles for the Macedonia to start membership talks and called on it to resolve issues with Skopje while negotiations are ongoing.

 "A year and a half ago, we decided that the EU would start negotiations with Macedonia. This is already a dishonest step by the EU, because the state has done everything necessary. This situation undermines confidence in the EU - on the one hand, we recognize that your country has met the conditions, and on the other hand, negotiations are not starting. Such situations are harmful, dangerous and contrary to the security and other interests of the EU. EU policy towards the Western Balkans has become ineffective, prompting Hungary to demand that membership talks between Macedonia and Albania begin immediately. "We need success, and that will be the solution. Therefore, Hungary will do everything possible for the EU to start enlargement with the Western Balkans as soon as possible," Siarto said.

Asked why he sought responsibility in the EU for the blockade of only one member state, Budapest's first diplomat answered indirectly. "I ask my friends from Bulgaria to try to solve their national problems during the membership negotiations, not by hindering their beginning," Siarto said, adding that if Hungary had been asked, Macedonia would have already started negotiations with Union.

 For his part, Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani thanked Siarto for Hungary's continued support for Macedonian European integration, stressing that "our citizens are less and less aware of why the EU has not decided to start negotiations again." According to him, given the current course of negotiations and the progress made, the six-month deadline set by Bulgaria's new prime minister for talks with Macedonia is too long. Confidence in the EU and the unpredictable regional situation, he said, could not stand such a wait, adding that if there is political will, the dispute could be resolved in January.

"We deserve this process. We will not stop working until we become a member of the EU. Of course, there is side damage. I don't think we should leave Brussels or Sofia alone. "It has been promised that they must do so, even at the cost of spending the political capital of each of us," Osmani said.

He added that Macedonia will not take steps that would mean uncertainty.

 "The negotiating framework is a document of the Council of the EU, but this document must also be adopted by us. Our position will be clear that we will no longer take steps that will mean uncertainty, that will mean continuing the process. I have been asking for a second meeting of the intergovernmental commission for more than a year, because this is the most objective barometer of whether the agreement with Bulgaria has been implemented. Other assessments are biased, "Osmani added.