Mucunski: There should be no doubt that Euro-integration is in our interest, but there must be a framework for predictability and guarantees

Skopje – For our European integration, first there should be no dilemma that it is in our interest to find a solution to this dispute which obviously exists with Bulgaria. I am encouraged that more and more member states, as well as the European institutions, are developing awareness and to some extent understanding of our positions. And I often hear the point related to the question of predictability with the counterargument that predictability is not something that can be obtained with certainty on the path of European integration. But I tell everyone that likewise our case of European integration can neither be measured nor compared with any other case in recent history, said at today’s press conference the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timcho Mucunski, answering a journalist’s question.

Mucunski repeated that the country in the last more than 30 years has changed the constitution several times, the flag, the name, and not to mention, as he said, the series of national concessions that have been made. 

– Now, conditionally speaking, perhaps the easiest move is, at least that is how it looks perceptually, for the Government to make the constitutional amendments, since we have a majority in the Parliament. But what if the Government does that and we know that in six months we can again face the same situation. Is that a responsible, even a European approach. We say there must be a framework for predictability, to obtain some form of institutional guarantees that our identity, language and national history will not become the subject of negotiations because at the moment we do not feel comfortable. To know that the other side will respect international conventions, as it has committed to do, and will respect the Macedonians who live on its territory. Whether these positions that Prime Minister Mickoski spoke about at the Congress have been clearly conveyed in Brussels, have no dilemma. For a longer period they have been clearly conveyed, said Mucunski at the joint press conference with the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania Elisa Spiropali.

According to Mucunski, from certain member states and from the European institutions there is encouragement and a desire to establish dialogue. 

– And on our side there is readiness as soon as tomorrow to sit down to talk, to discuss how to unblock this unprincipled blockade that is being imposed on our country. But if someone expects that this Government will simply agree and make a concession, without having certainty about the future and the completion of the European path, the public knows well that there is no such readiness on our part, Mucunski pointed out. 

According to him, the complexity of the whole situation is the internal political situation in Bulgaria and therefore, as he said, we are maximally careful in everything that we will say publicly. 

– We will not allow ourselves to once again enter the same cycle of blockades that our predecessors imposed, because it was easiest for them to accept everything that the other side would offer. There is no challenge for which, if there is will from all sides, a solution cannot be found, says Mucunski. (22 December 2025)