Dr. Bujar Osmani:

I thank Deputy Howlin for his kind words of support. I agree with him that Ireland has been a staunch and consistent supporter of North Macedonia's EU perspective. This is acknowledged and recognised not only among political elites but among ordinary citizens in North Macedonia. We are so grateful for this. Our bilateral co-operation has also been strengthened due to this continuous support Ireland has been providing to our EU journey, which has been extraordinary as the Deputy said.

We started this journey back in 2001. We were in a group with Slovenia and Croatia. We signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union just a few months after Slovenia and a few months before Croatia. Everyone expected that this would be the first package of countries that would join the European Union from that part of the world. Then all of a sudden, North Macedonia was detached from this group because the European process was bilateralised mainly for us. As the Deputy said, specific impediments were introduced which made this journey very difficult. In 2004, we applied here during Ireland's Presidency with the EU for membership. In 2005, we were granted candidacy status. Every single year since 2009, the European Commission has been recommending to the Council that North Macedonia has met the criteria to start the accession negotiations. Every single time it has refused this objective recommendation which is based on the Commission's non-biased reports. Experts prepare those reports. However, because the decision is adopted with unanimity, there was always a country that blocked this process. Finally, in 2018, we signed the Prespa Agreement.

This year in June, we will mark the first jubilee and the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Prespa Agreement. We had to change the name of the country which implied we needed to change the constitution, and we organised a referendum back then. We told our people that if we did this, our path to NATO and to the EU would be secured. The accession to NATO happened and that was one of the biggest victories of our foreign policy. It was our first and most important strategic priority. Being situated in a very difficult region, historically on a battleground between the West and East, it was important for us to be part of the security umbrella that NATO provides. This happened and we are so pleased that during these dire geopolitical times with the war of aggression in Ukraine, we are a credible member of NATO. We are also contributing to our regional stability as well.

However, EU membership did not happen because then Bulgaria front-loaded its request. Our perception about the EU process was that this was about meeting the Copenhagen criteria, that is, the political and economic criteria and transposing the EU acquis to our society and not solving bilateral issues through the vehicle provided by the EU process. As a result, first people felt a disappointment and a sense of betrayal. After the name had been changed, everyone expected the process would be fast-forwarded to the EU. Now one of the conditions to move forward in the process is to reopen the constitution again to introduce the Bulgarian community in the preamble of the constitution. As I said during my introductory speech, if this road had been a normal road, this request to reopen the constitution would not have been controversial at all. North Macedonia is a unique model of functional multiethnic democracy. I say this as someone who does not come from the majority community, but is today a Minister for Foreign Affairs of a multiethnic North Macedonia. However, this feeling that the EU process has become a moving target and that there is no end to it and no credibility in the process, is what frustrates people.

The Deputy asked how it was going with Bulgaria and if I could clarify this process. Unfortunately, it started as an anachronistic way of doing bilateral relations with Bulgaria. History, and different interpretations of history, were introduced into the EU process. The EU is the opposite of this. The EU is about accepting diversity and multi-perspectivity in interpretations of the past as well. During the negotiation process with Bulgaria, we managed to shift the focus from issues of history towards human rights, minority rights, and issues related to the EU acquis and what the EU is about. Therefore, the decision was made to reopen the constitution, introduce the Bulgarian minority and to strengthen relations between the state and all minorities, regardless of their size. Based on the latest census, we have around 3,000 Bulgarians in North Macedonia. However, it is our position that everyone in North Macedonia would enjoy individual and collective rights regardless of the numbers of their group and we will ensure people enjoy those rights. We hope this is not just one of the impediments in the process but rather, after we complete the constitutional changes, we will finally open the first cluster of negotiations about rule of law, fighting corruption, fundamental rights, and about introducing the values of the EU in the country. It is finally the time that the EU negotiation process becomes an EU negotiation process and not a platform or a vehicle to solve all possible bilateral issues that candidate countries have with members of the European Union.