Talking Europe hosts Bujar Osmani, the foreign minister of North Macedonia, which launched EU accession talks nearly a year ago – although it has been in the EU’s waiting room for far longer than that. Currently a screening process of North Macedonia’s legislation is under way, and Osmani urges the opening of talks with the EU on key topics. He warns that North Macedonian society has become wary of “making concessions while there are no deliverables”.
On the constitutional changes that are now emerging as key to North Macedonia continuing its EU path, Osmani says, “Our public is hesitant about constitutional change because we recently had constitutional changes, just four years ago, on the name change (from Macedonia to North Macedonia). So people feel that this EU process has become a moving target, and that we have to keep making concessions while there are no deliverables from the other side. So the environment has become a bit difficult for us to pursue the process.”
