VMRO-DPMNE, now being the largest opposition party in Macedonia, will keep on making utmost efforts for the country to start EU accession negotiations and to join NATO, Nikola Gruevski said Wednesday after a meeting with Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. Ironically, Hahn is the man who promised Gruevski he will be “out of power” only for two weeks as long as he signs the Przino Agreement. Gruevski never returned to power.
The VMRO-DPMNE leader and Hahn in Brussels held 45-minute talks to share views on current developments in Macedonia with an emphasis put on solutions to unblock the country’s EU integration process.
“VMRO-DPMNE believes it is high time Macedonia is allowed to launch negotiations with the EU, because the country has so far implemented many reforms, in all spheres and sectors,” Gruevski said adding the former VMRO-DPMNE-led government had done major progress, which had been a ‘praised’ achievement.
Gruevski said he told Hahn there should be some kind of outcome considering the launch of membership talks with the EU, even though there would be a need for new reforms in the course of the negotiations, because ‘reforms are a process that never stops.’
“At the same time, we believe Macedonia should be given an invitation to join NATO. We’ve been waiting for too long and we have been blocked, which has nothing to do with reform implementation. It was concluded that in 2008 Macedonia had already implemented needed reforms, but was still prevented from joining the Alliance,” the VMRO-DPMNE president stated.
Regardless of VMRO-DPMNE leading the opposition in Macedonia, he added, the party remains on the same course and will keep on fighting for Macedonia.
Also, Gruevski held meetings with MEPs Eduard Kukan and Andrey Kovatchev to discuss the progress made by Macedonia in the past several years.
