North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Timco Mucunski. Photo: North Macedonia’s MFA.
North Macedonia’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM, accused Foreign Minister Timco Mucunski on Tuesday of holding “secret talks” about the country’s EU future behind the backs of its citizens.
“There is no normal country where a foreign minister says talks on the future of the country are a secret for its citizens,” the SDSM said.
The party accused the centre-right VMRO DPMNE-led government of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski of refusing to disclose details of important alleged negotiations.
The accusations came a day after Mucunski, in an interview with the state news agency MIA, said for the first time that the government was pursuing confidential efforts to find a “lasting and sustainable solution” to the long-running dispute with Bulgaria that has blocked the opening of EU accession talks.
“We are working on a solution, but not a solution at any cost, and not one that would prove unsustainable and bring us back to the situation we are in today,” Mucunski said, adding that revealing details could jeopardise the negotiations.
According to Mucunski, Skopje will not cross established “red lines” in these talks and is seeking guarantees from EU member states that its accession process will become more predictable once the current impasse is resolved.
Although he declined to identify those involved in the contacts, Mucunski suggested discussions were also taking place with several European partners behind closed doors in an attempt to break the years of deadlock.
North Macedonia’s accession talks have repeatedly stalled despite the country becoming an EU candidate back in 2005. After resolving a long-running dispute over its name with Greece, Skopje expected to move swiftly toward membership negotiations.
Instead, since 2020, Bulgaria blocked the process, arguing that North Macedonia had failed to address issues related to history, language and the rights of people who identify as Bulgarian.
An attempt to overcome the deadlock came in 2022 through the so-called French proposal, under which North Macedonia agreed to amend its constitution to include Bulgarians among its constitutionally recognised peoples.
However, the VMRO DPMNE-led government, which came to power in 2024, has stressed it will not act unless it receives guarantees that Bulgaria won’t block the country again, further down the line.
Mucunski’s remarks about quiet efforts to achieve a breakthrough come after the EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos last month called on North Macedonia again to change its constitution to speed up EU membership, making it clear that EU enlargement is not built on guarantees given in advance.
