Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are pushing for North Macedonia to adopt the constitutional reform it needs to join the EU club, even though some believe the process to be on the brink of collapse.
On Thursday, Austrian Foreign Minister Schallenberg will travel to Skopje with his counterparts from Slovakia and the Czech Republic on behalf of EU Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell, intending to accelerate the implementation of a constitutional amendment that is necessary to advance the EU accession process of North Macedonia.
Bulgaria blocked the country’s EU path over language and cultural disputes and can only be unblocked if Skopje includes the Bulgarian minority in the constitution, something that requires a parliamentary majority that is not attainable at the moment.
“We will advertise the constitutional reform and demonstrate our support. Because North Macedonia is very ambitious, but without constitutional change, all ambitions go nowhere”, Schallenberg stressed, APA reported.
After “mandated trips” to the South Caucasus in June 2021 and Montenegro in December 2022, this is Schallenberg’s third EU mission, his office announced in advance.
On behalf of the 27 EU member states, the three foreign ministers will meet with their Macedonian counterpart Bujar Osmani, President Stevo Pendarovski, Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi, and various representatives from the governing coalition, opposition, and civil society.
The three-country group – Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic- was founded in 2015 in the southern Moravian town of Slavkov (Austerlitz). The “Slavkov/Austerlitz format” aims to make cooperation between the three countries even closer.
The three foreign ministers had already used the format in the past to send a signal of Central European solidarity with joint trips, the Foreign Ministry stressed, for example, to Ukraine in February and July 2022 and to Moldova in April 2022.
Rapprochement process ‘on the brink of collapse’
To speed up EU accession for Western Balkan states like North Macedonia, Schallenberg launched the “Friends of the Western Balkans” – a group of seven EU member states set up to speed up the process of EU accession for Western Balkan states.
“In addition to close historical and cultural ties, Austria maintains above all active trade with the states of the region and is an important economic factor in the Balkans”, senior researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP) Vedran Dzihic told EURACTIV on Tuesday.
He added that this explains Austria’s general interest and makes it one of those states that are considered “Balkan experts” and “mediators” in the EU.
However, the rapprochement process with North Macedonia would be “on the brink of collapse” as the EU would have “gambled away a lot of political capital with blockades of the process by France first and then by Bulgaria”.
Therefore, “the path to constitutional changes” would “not look good at the moment”, and it would remain “highly questionable” whether the diplomatic initiative from the EU and Austria can help, Dzihic concluded.
North Macedonia became an official EU candidate in 2005.
(Chiara Swaton | EURACTIV.de)
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