Prime Minister Zoran Zaev expressed surprise at the position taken by President Stevo Pendarovski in Pristina on Wednesday on the Open Balkans initiative, Skopje's Sloboden Pechat newspaper reported.
"It is incomprehensible why anyone would be against friendship with neighbors, against the rapprochement of young people and peoples of the Western Balkans and against easier and faster economic exchange between countries in the region," Zaev told TV 21, adding that the past was showed what closed Balkans meant and that any conspiracy against "Open Balkans" was unjustified.
According to Zaev, it is especially incomprehensible when "such a negative reaction comes from the first person in the country, who should be the first to protect the interests of citizens."
"In Macedonia, the president has no competence in terms of facilitating customs procedures, in terms of introducing the one-stop-shop principle for speeding up border crossings, in terms of recognizing work permits and diplomas," Zaev said.
He stressed that he was not worried, but was confident that the institutions would work hard to ensure the benefits of this initiative for citizens.
"I am surprised that Pendarovski changed his views on this primarily economic initiative, but I will not be surprised when he changes his mind again and gives support in the next period, in the interest of citizens, the state and the region," Zaev said on TV. 21 “.
During a visit to Kosovo yesterday, President Pendarovski told a joint news conference with Kosovo President Vyosa Osmani that Open Balkans was a failed initiative from the start because instead of all six Western Balkan countries, only half participated in the initiative. He noted that until the initiative covers all six countries in the Western Balkans, it will not be successful.
According to him, the Open Balkans should be just one aspect of the Berlin Process, which has institutions and resources, and this initiative does not yet exist.
"Well-intentioned initiatives, of course, can only be a part, they cannot be a substitute for the Berlin Process, which has given excellent results so far and which has been going on for 7-8 years with tendencies to expand and enrich with new content," Pendarovski said.
He recalled that he had initially expressed reservations about the Open Balkans in 2019, because he believed that if it was an attempt to restore some Yugoslavia or an alternative to EU membership, he would oppose it, but after receiving assurances from the prime ministers involved in the initiative that their idea was not like that, he supported the initiative.
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