Dimitrov: Negotiations make no sense if they require same level of maturity as EU accession

Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov has been talking to experts and the press about the name negotiations with Greece.

At a conference organized by the European Political Center, he was asked to persuade EU-member countries that hesitate to start negotiations with Macedonia.

“There should be a clear distinction,” FM Dimitrov said, “between starting negotiations and EU accession. They are not the same. Two to three electoral cycles are separating the two, and EU accession is a tool that is here to help reforms.

“If you ask for the same level of democratic maturity as that required to enter the EU then the process makes no sense.”

“Some countries started negotiations only to later find themselves blocked. Nothing is a given. Any time this process is politicized, it fails. It succeeds only when the country is evaluated individually and on the basis of merit,” Dimitrov said.