The EU – more than just a nice dream?

Zdravko Saveski

As expected – we didn’t get a date for starting accession talks with the EU. Zaev, especially before the referendum, reassured us that we will start the accession negotiations with the EU in June this year. Those familiar with the situation knew that it was highly unlikely that this would happen even before the signing of the Prespa Agreement, and even if we did change the name of the country. But many people believed Zaev. And they voted in the referendum. Due to only one reason: to finally open the road to joining the EU. Now, those citizens are disappointed. And they joined their fellow citizens who were already disappointed by the change of the country’s name. So, a great deal of citizens have fallen into deep resignation and apathy, they don’t trust anyone anymore, they don’t want to engage in anything. Until someone comes up with a brand new lie, apparently unreal, but pleasant for their ears.

Too many people here too easily believe in nicely wrapped lies. This is the biggest problem that we are facing. There are not enough words to explain how big that problem is! We cannot make a step out of the magic circle, in which we are turning for decades, until we show the will and the strength to look the ugly facts straight into the eyes. It is easier for us to convince ourselves that someone with a magic wand will take care of things for us. So, for decades now, we have been paralyzed by politicians who continue to convince us that they have this magic wand and that everything we have to do is give them our vote and never move a finger. I too would like the EU to be the EU from the fairytales that politicians tell us. But it is not. I am sorry that it is not so, I am also sorry from the point of view of the citizens of this country, I am also sorry from my point of view. But fairytales do not become more realistic, no matter how strongly they want to be believed to be true. We need to finally understand, we should finally stop listening to politicians who tell fairytales and “experts” who act as politicians lying to the citizens in the service of the party they support, rather than providing them with facts and expert opinion.

The harsh truth is this. The EU membership does not guarantee any significant increase in the living standard of citizens of the countries that are joining. But as a result of this minimal improvement, the EU power centers no longer want to join new undeveloped countries that will hang on their backs. They want to use their resources, want those countries to be in their political orbit, but unless they are forced by geopolitical reasons, they prefer those countries in their lobby rather than in their ranks.

This truth about the EU is very cruel and very different from EU fairytales that you are used to listening from the politicians. Both those from Macedonia and those from the EU. But we need to face the facts. And the facts say the following. First, that it is not as easy to get a date for accession negotiations as it was before. Second, getting a date does not mean getting an instant EU membership, but rather starting negotiations that will last for several years. Third, that even when they finally back down and accept our country as a member state, we will not stop being a country from the outskirts of capitalism, we will not stop being an undeveloped country. I’ll explain.

What clouds our perception is that many countries from the former Eastern bloc have become members of the EU without meeting all the required standards. This is especially true for Bulgaria and Romania. Therefore, if they got through, why can’t we? All this sounds good, but, apart from the geostrategic and economic calculations in Brussels, they have learned the lesson, and if these two countires have managed to get through so far, that does not mean that the EU will allow for this to become a practice. And in that direction, even getting a date to start the accession negotiations, even when the European Commission recommends it, it has become something that is difficult to get.

To make things worse, the start date of the negotiations becomes a point far beyond the EU membership. Earlier, negotiations began and ended in a couple of years. But due to changes that occurred in the meantime, now it can take several years. Let’s take a look at Croatia’s case. Due to the country’s dispute with Slovenia, the negotiations dragged on and lasted for less than six years. They started in October 2005 and were finalized in June 2011, after which, in 2013, Croatia became a EU member state.
Montenegro has already passed these six years of negotiations that Croatia needed! The Montenegrins began the accession talks in 2012, but their membership in the EU today, after seven years of negotiations, is nowhere in sight. They were told that in 2025 they might (!) join the Union, but they are constantly reminded that the year 2025 should not be taken “for granted”. In seven years, Montenegro has managed to close only three of the 35 chapters. Serbia is quite similar. In five years, the country has closed only two chapters. When will Montenegro and Serbia close all 35 chapters, if they needed so many years to close only two or three? Based on what do they convince us that our case will be different from the cases of Montenegro and Serbia?

However, maybe one day around 2035 or 2050, we might become members of the European Union. Do you think in that case automatically, just because of EU membership, the standard of living and democratic standards will significantly improve in a few years? We have Bulgaria as an example. Just across the border. Go visit the country. Bulgaria has been a member state of the EU for more than ten years. It is a sufficient period of time to draw conclusions. Yes, there was GDP growth; yes, unemployment rate has decreased; yes, downtown Sofia looks better than before. But you know what? Macedonia’s statistics also indicate that GDP has grown, unemployment rate has decreased, and the center of Skopje can create an illusion to foreigners that we have so much money that we waste it on various monuments. If the situation in Bulgaria has improved so much, after ten years of membership in the EU, why are its citizens moving away, and why don’t they want to return?

It is true that not all EU members are at the point where Bulgaria is. The living standard is at a far higher level in the Western countries. But the standard of living in those countries was high even before EU membership. And it will continue to be high and if they cease to be EU members. Their standard of living just does not depend on their EU membership.
It depends on the fact that they are part of the core of capitalism, so they benefit at the expense of the global south, and this is due to the struggle of the working class in those countries for raising the working and living standards. Without that struggle, those countries would be rich, of course, but also the people would have lived far poorer lives than they are living now.

Let’s go back to the fight. The people in this country will too live as well, even before joining the EU and after joining the EU, as much as it will endeavor to do so. Of course, it’s much nicer if someone else did things for you. But it simply does not exist. Fairytales do not become more realistic when one decides to strongly believe in their accuracy. Let’s see to it that we face the facts and look them straight into their eyes and stop whining, stop the empty talk, stop seeing things through rose-colored glasses, a childish belief in saviors with magic wands. It’s a cruel world and it’s getting crueler each day. If we refuse to fight for a better tomorrow – it will only get worse.