Macedonia and the European Union

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  • Carlin
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2011
    • 3332

    Macron Seeks to Slow EU Expansion in Blow to Balkan Aspirations

    October 13, 2019, 8:14 AM EDT

    URL:
    Balkan hopes of starting accession negotiations with the European Union hang in the balance, as France insists the bloc is not yet ready to discuss the possibility of accepting new members, documents exchanged between diplomatic missions in Brussels show.


    - France resists accession talks with Albania, North Macedonia
    - EU nations remain split ahead of decision due on Tuesday

    Balkan hopes of starting accession negotiations with the European Union hang in the balance, as France insists the bloc is not yet ready to discuss the possibility of accepting new members, documents exchanged between diplomatic missions in Brussels show.

    North Macedonia and Albania are keen for a green light this week to start formal talks to join the world’s largest trading club. While most member states back their request, France and the Netherlands want a complete overhaul of the enlargement process before negotiations with the two countries can begin.

    Paris wants any further talks to be “more gradual, more concrete in the benefits they bring to concerned countries and reversible according to the effective, tangible and sustainable implementation of reforms,” a draft communique of a ministerial meeting in Luxembourg showed. The memo was circulated on Oct. 10 by French diplomats to other EU governments.

    No date for formal negotiations should be given to Albania and North Macedonia before the EU completes this overhaul of its “methodology,” it said.

    Expansion proponents argue that the prospect of EU membership will help further anchor the troubled region to the West, while failure to set a date for the start of formal negotiations risks weakening reformist forces in Albania and North Macedonia.

    But western EU officials exasperated by the failure of eastern nations that joined in 2004 and 2007 to uphold the rule of law and fight corruption are wary of admitting new members.

    At Loggerheads

    Countries including Poland, Hungary and Romania -- among the largest recipients of EU structural funds and agricultural aid -- are at loggerheads with the European Commission over their democratic standards, and the bloc’s executive arm has so far failed to force them to fall in line.

    At France’s insistence, the EU said in its June communique on the topic of enlargement that admission of new members should take into account the bloc’s “capacity to integrate” them.

    France and the Netherlands aren’t alone in their skepticism. Adding to the complications, countries such as Greece and Bulgaria cite bilateral issues that first need to be resolved, while others seek conditions attached to any positive nod, especially for Albania.

    EU ambassadors will make a last-ditch effort to broker a compromise on Monday before ministers meet in Luxembourg on Tuesday, where a decision is due to be taken. EU leaders must sign off when they meet in Brussels on Thursday.

    The latest draft of the decision, dated Oct. 11 and seen by Bloomberg, gives a green light for formal accession negotiations to start in the first half of next year, but “no one is happy” with the wording, according to one diplomat familiar with the deliberations.




    Last edited by Carlin; 10-13-2019, 12:50 PM.

    Comment

    • Niko777
      Senior Member
      • Oct 2010
      • 1895

      Is it a coincidence? The fact that France is the biggest opponent to N. Macedonia's accession into the EU and the fact that Greece has recently spent over 3 Billion Euros purchasing tanks, planes, and vessels from France?

      Comment

      • Gocka
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2012
        • 2306

        Failed experiment. Its hard enough keeping a single country unified and functioning with a relatively homogeneous populace. Who really believed that you can take 740 million people, countless religions, cultures, languages, histories, interests, and everything else under the sun, and push them all towards a centralized government and a common identity.

        It roughly sounds like the USA, but with some big differences. People leave their homelands to go become Americans. No one wants to leave behind their family and their home, they only do so out of necessity. Because of that people are basically buying into the American system as soon as they enter it, and they are aware of that. The European experiment expects people to change their homelands and their cultures. A very different proposition. When you go to the USA you take with you the parts of your culture that you were fond of but you mostly leave your home behind. In Europe you are basically trying to destroy or at least re-brand everything that was and still is and pretend as if it never was. You are asking people to forget what they have always known, to ignore what is all around them, and just be something totally new. Its just unnatural in my opinion. Besides the USA still has 50 states with very localized governance and yes even cultures. I'm sure if you tried to impose a Californian system on every state, there would be a civil war.

        I just don't understand how anyone can seriously believe that the European experiment can ever come to full fruition. Its fake, its forced, it constantly hangs by a thread. What is even harder to understand is how people in the Balkans keep believing that the EU experiment has or will improve their homelands. They had the right idea with trade policies and more lax travel regimes but this idea of making everyone "Europeans", is down right stupid and will never happen.

        As far as FYRONMABCEDFHIJK......, I've never seen a group of people follow a carrot for so long and still not realize that its attached to a string. Its painful to watch.

        Comment

        • Carlin
          Senior Member
          • Dec 2011
          • 3332

          Originally posted by Niko777 View Post
          Is it a coincidence? The fact that France is the biggest opponent to N. Macedonia's accession into the EU and the fact that Greece has recently spent over 3 Billion Euros purchasing tanks, planes, and vessels from France?
          Whatever the case might be France has essentially Vetoed Macedonia today.

          Do you recall the old song "Od vrv Pirin planina"?

          Comment

          • JPMKD
            Member
            • Mar 2016
            • 101

            I LOVE IT! These hacks in FYROMFROM deserve this.
            (Apologies in advance for the rant....)
            I find it awesome that they are being cockblocked by those they thought would help. Stupid fools. All those years wasted, honestly, the death blow was the Interim Accord. Once they gave up symbols, and the flag , it was easy to see they would sell their culture and heritage.
            And those jokers blame the diaspora??? Hell, we have been utterly embarrassed and shamed by these dumbasses in FYRONFROM.
            I recently watched a video of me talking about Macedonia and explaining the situation to people in 1992.....such hope. LOL. I hope they either rebel or call for a new vote or get some leaders with real pride and the interest of our heritage and people.
            I hope what I have seem from 1992 to now isn't the future. If it is, lets just say fuck it and do the federation with Albania. I even have a name for it. The Central Balkan Republic (Yes, I know where that's from, but hell, it would fit if they federate...)
            So dejected and pissed. And to top it off I am just getting into another of Vic's books (get some, they are good!) and I see the final word from France, etc on here. It's kinda hard to press on. I saw in another thread monuments being defaced....I agree likely the government to help with "friendly relations" Sad to see people in Hong Kong standing up to authority from a superpower but the "Macedonians" can't even stand up to their own backward assed sellout leaders. (Who might actually acquiesce if it seems in their best person interests)OK selfish rant over! Pozdrav!
            I'm going to go jam out on my new copy of that classic song: Severne Makidonska Devoiche
            Not a Northadonian

            Comment

            • Tomche Makedonche
              Senior Member
              • Oct 2011
              • 1123

              France objects to North Macedonia and Albania EU accession talks



              France objects to North Macedonia and Albania EU accession talks

              Paris wants bloc’s enlargement process be made more demanding and reversible

              Michael Peel in Brussels and Valerie Hopkins in Budapest yesterday

              The prospect of the EU triggering enlargement talks with North Macedonia and Albania hung by a thread on Tuesday after France mounted fierce opposition to the Balkan countries joining the bloc.

              EU foreign and Europe ministers were haggling in Luxembourg in a final effort to win agreement ahead of an EU summit this week where many member states want to launch the accession process for Skopje and Tirana as part of a strategic battle for the western Balkans.

              But the French objections have laid bare tensions over the bloc’s stance on a region surrounded by EU countries in which rival powers including China, Russia and Turkey are vying for influence.

              Paris argues that Albania and North Macedonia need to implement more reforms before talks can begin. It also says the wider EU accession process needs to be made more demanding and reversible.

              “The French are playing with fire,” said one EU diplomat from the majority group that supports launching accession talks with both countries. “This could threaten the stability of the region. It’s a very serious thing.”

              EU diplomats said Paris stood alone in its opposition to North Macedonia, which has initiated a series of reforms demanded by the EU, including changing its name to end a decades-old dispute with neighbouring Greece.

              “We hope that in the end France will live up to its European leadership aspirations and join the EU consensus on North Macedonia,” said an official from another member state.

              North Macedonia, which resolved “impossible” talks over its name last year and “made a democratic U-turn at home”, has been waiting for 14 years to open EU talks, the country’s foreign minister, Nikola Dimitrov, told the Financial Times. Decisions on negotiations were postponed last year and again this summer due to EU disunity.

              “What’s at stake is EU enlargement policy and the European perspective for the Balkans itself. The question is if the EU will keep the lighthouse lit,” he said.

              The debate over Albania is more nuanced, as countries other than France — including the Netherlands and Denmark — are sceptical because of fears about domestic political instability, organised crime and the stalling of some reforms. Albania undertook a painful judicial vetting procedure in the hope of moving towards EU membership.

              Albania’s foreign affairs minister, Gent Cakaj, warned that blocking negotiations would diminish the EU’s role in the entire region and “risks undermining reformist forces in the region”. A negative decision would “embolden third actors who have been waiting in the wings for a long time”, he warned.

              A further complication has been a division between countries opposed to “decoupling” the cases of North Macedonia and Albania and others prepared to accept a refusal for Tirana as the price of advancing Skopje’s case — a position diplomats said was attracting increasing support.

              France, which has historically been sceptical about EU enlargement in general, argues that the accession process needs to be reviewed before admitting new countries, a tension Mr Cakaj dubbed “a false dilemma”.

              Paris is not wrong to question the current state of the enlargement process, but it needs to give Skopje a green light, said Gerald Knaus, executive director of the European Stability Initiative, a Berlin-based think-tank focused on south-eastern Europe and enlargement.

              He noted that according to the EU’s own assessment, North Macedonia is more prepared for membership than Serbia, which, along with Montenegro, is considered a “frontrunner” for accession. “The current accession process does not work,” he said.

              Mr Knaus proposed a Balkan free trade zone modelled on the pre-accession experience of Austria and Sweden. He argued that Paris should consent to open talks with Skopje and then support the creation of a South-east European Economic Area, which would steer the countries towards the common market — without the promise of membership.

              French president Emmanuel Macron’s administration faces the perceived political threat that far-right domestic political rivals could use enlargement to push scare stories about Balkan criminal gangs and an influx of Muslims from Albania.
              “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” - Mario Savio

              Comment

              • Tomche Makedonche
                Senior Member
                • Oct 2011
                • 1123

                European Union ministers have failed to give the go-ahead to begin membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, another blow to the Western Balkan nations' hopes of a speedy accession process.


                EU Ministers Fail To Approve Official Accession Talks With Albania, North Macedonia

                European Union ministers have failed to give the go-ahead to begin membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, another blow to the Western Balkan nations' hopes of a speedy accession process.

                "It was not a moment of glory for Europe," Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn told reporters in Luxembourg on October 15 following a meeting of European affairs ministers.

                Hahn added that an "overwhelming majority" of EU members supported the Commission's recommendation that talks begin but that they could not reach the required unanimous decision.

                It was the third time -- following similar outcomes in June 2018 and June 2019 -- that the bloc's ministers failed to reach unanimity.

                The issue will now be discussed by EU leaders when they meet in Brussels for an EU summit on October 17-18.

                Several sources who asked not to be identified told RFE/RL that France played a key role in blocking the start of official accession talks with the two small nations.

                Tytti Tuppurainen, Finland’s minister for European affairs, said after the meeting that "unfortunately, there were a few member states hesitant and one member state particularly against it."

                "So, we were not able to reach that required unanimity in order to make the decision,"she added.

                France and the Netherlands, in particular, have expressed reluctance to open the door to new members over concerns about corruption and the standards of the rule of law in some applicant nations.

                French European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin said that Paris did not want to separate Albania's case from that of North Macedonia, which has broader EU support, as suggested by Finland.

                France "is not asking for anything new" and "is not saying no," de Montchalin told reporters after the meeting.

                "We are just asking that criteria set back in June 2018 be fully applied," she added, citing reforms that she said Albania and North Macedonia had not yet completely undertaken.

                However, other nations have expressed concerns that delays over membership could aid attempts by Russia or China to increase their influence in the region.

                Germany's Minister for European Affairs Michael Roth warned that a "possible political vacuum" in the region "will be filled by other powers that certainly have little in common with democracy and the rule of law."
                “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” - Mario Savio

                Comment

                • Risto the Great
                  Senior Member
                  • Sep 2008
                  • 15658

                  Macedonia should have changed its name to "EU".
                  Risto the Great
                  MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
                  "Holding my breath for the revolution."

                  Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

                  Comment

                  • Carlin
                    Senior Member
                    • Dec 2011
                    • 3332

                    Emmerson asks: "Is Spain still committed to a European model of democracy?"

                    URL:
                    Human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson calls Spanish court verdict 'a truly chilling decision for European democracy as a whole.'


                    Marta Lasalas

                    Barcelona. Tuesday, 15 October 2019

                    British human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson has warned that Monday's court decision to give heavy jail sentences to Catalan pro-independence leaders places Spain on a "collision course with the United Nations, the international community and the international rule of law." "It is a dark day for democracy in Spain," said Emmerson, who is part of the legal team which presented the Catalan political prisoners' case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions. The UN Working Group concluded that the Catalan pro-independence leaders who were part of the case (seven of those now convicted for sedition) were wrongfully held in custody and called for their immediate release, but Spain ignored the UN ruling.

                    Emmerson warned in a statement that the decision taken by Spain's Supreme Court, "torpedoes the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the political crisis in Catalonia" He said the court had "quite deliberately dropped an incendiary device into a tinder box". For this reason, he considers it vital for all parties to remain calm, and redouble their efforts for a negotiated solution, before the situation "spirals out of control".

                    The British lawyer says that the debate has now gone well beyond the question of independence: "It’s about whether Spain remains committed to the European model of democracy. This is a truly chilling decision for European democracy as a whole, which will reverberate throughout the continent."

                    Emmerson added, sharing his declarations on Twitter, that he believes the case has a significance that goes far beyond Europe: "If an EU Member State can get away with locking up democrats" on this basis, he asked, "what message does this send to oppressive regimes elsewhere in the world?"

                    The lawyer also used Twitter to share the comments made by prominent British left-wing activist Owen Jones in response to the Supreme Court verdicts: that a "supposedly democratic European state locking up political dissidents" was "grotesque". Emmerson expressed his relief that "finally" someone close to the main UK political parties had become aware of the broader "democratic" implications of the issue.


                    131 injured, including one eye and one testicle lost: first day of sentence protests in Catalonia

                    URL:


                    Organisations like Novact, Irídia, Iacta, ACDDH and La Fede have set up the platform Som Defensores (We Are Defenders) to defend and protect human rights during the protests in response to the sentences announced yesterday by Spain's Supreme Court against pro-independence leaders.

                    "The team Som Defensores was activated yesterday after the different protests announced after the sentence in the trial over 1st October [2017, referendum day] was announced first thing in the morning and it will remain on alert for the whole week," they say.

                    Among its first activities was to monitor those most seriously wounded by the police's response to the protests. According to the platform, they are aware of 29 cases of injuries caused by police during yesterday's protests. Six of the cases were people hit by foam bullets, five were hit with police batons on their heads and 16 injured on other parts of their body. They also confirmed that one person was seriously injured in one of their eyes, and another in a testicle. "The observers are also aware of kettling, limitations of movement and verbal attacks. We also highlight that 11 journalists have been injured."

                    "It's intolerable that foam bullets have been used again in Catalonia. Despite the Parliament's ban being only legally binding on the Mossos and not the [Spanish] National Police Corps, we understand there's a political agreement which PSC forms part of and which the Spanish government should respect", said lawyer Andrés García Berrio, a member of Irídia acting as spokesperson for Som Defensores. García Berrio will be responsible for giving legal assistance to the victims.

                    The lawyer also says that they "detected foam projectiles being fired directly at people who weren't doing anything and at people's heads." He adds that in many cases both Mossos and National Police Corps officers used their batons hitting from high to low, contrary to protocol.

                    The platform also said that "observers have suffered retentions, attacks and been identified by the security forces despite being accredited". On the other hand, they say there were Mossos officers who didn't have their ID numbers on their backs.


                    Incidents in Barcelona - 90 second video:


                    Video: Car accelerates at protesters blocking road in Catalonia:











                    17 minutes of footage of clashes, incidents
                    Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

                    Last edited by Carlin; 10-16-2019, 12:30 AM.

                    Comment

                    • JPMKD
                      Member
                      • Mar 2016
                      • 101

                      Good maybe this will wake people u......oh wait, no it won't......
                      I shoulda know when they bowed and became Fyromainians to not keep any hope up. I already ranted on this in the Germany thread.
                      But, very typical of EU, and typical on the carrot chasers....and Balkan boneheads. Speaking of which, how about those Bulgarians in the football match? That's just the kind of thing the EU types will look at and think "Why another country from that region?"
                      Not that The Central Balkan Republic (Yes, the CBRdonians!) has western Euro ideals anymore than the rest of the Balkans....

                      I think I'll go bother the neighbors with some sad guitar sounds.....(And maybe make that soundcloud account finally)
                      Not a Northadonian

                      Comment

                      • Carlin
                        Senior Member
                        • Dec 2011
                        • 3332

                        Catalonia ‘separatists’ bad, HK ‘pro-democracy protesters’ good: Orwell’s 1984 becomes user’s manual for Western ‘free media’

                        George Galloway

                        15 Oct, 2019

                        URL:
                        When supporters of Catalan leaders jailed for organizing a democratic vote advance on Barcelona airport, media make a fuss over ‘separatists’ causing chaos. When the same tactic’s used in Hong Kong, it’s a ‘pro-democracy’ protest.


                        When supporters of Catalan leaders jailed for organizing a democratic vote advance on Barcelona airport, media make a fuss over ‘separatists’ causing chaos. When the same tactic’s used in Hong Kong, it’s a ‘pro-democracy’ protest.

                        In George Orwell’s 1984, The War Ministry was renamed the Ministry of Peace. Truth was Lies, Hate was Love. But author Lewis Carroll got there first.

                        In ‘Through the Looking Glass,’ first published in 1871, Humpty Dumpty tells Alice, and in rather a scornful manner, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”

                        “The question is,” said Alice “whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.”

                        “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that's all.”

                        Humpty Dumpty has indeed been put back together again, in our newsrooms and in the mouths of our politicians. As so often happens, it finds its apogee in Syria.

                        One man’s ‘terrorist’ is, of course, another man’s “freedom-fighter” – but now it’s becoming ridiculous. The so-called ‘Free’ so-called ‘Syrian’ so-called ‘Army’ –the FSA– are now being denounced all over the world for the savagery of their conduct in the Turkish incursions in north-east Syria.

                        The problem is that the Humpty Dumpties fulminating into their fountain-pens against it are the very same Humpties who told us for years that these were ‘moderate-rebels,’ ‘secular’ soldiers fighting for ‘democracy’ against ‘dictatorship’ in Syria. So much so, we had to give them the guns with which they are now reportedly gunning down Kurdish civilians, and over which we are now oh so appalled…

                        Those of us who drew attention to the fact that one of the FSA commanders had, in a former role, cut out a prisoner’s heart and eaten it on YouTube, were banned from social media-platforms, branded “Assad-apologists” or “Putin-apologists” or, in my case, both. That the so-called ‘democratic’ opposition was merely an alphabet-soup of Islamist fanatic forces in white-helmets wearing Mrs Clinton’s lipstick was a truth which simply could not be uttered.

                        This tragic farce is, in fact, ending as it began, when Hillary Humpty Dumpty Clinton's launch of the Coalition for a Democratic Syria literally died on her lips when it was pointed out that many of the countries in the coalition were the unfree-est, most anti-democratic countries on earth!

                        The name changed but the flow of guns, money, political and propaganda support never did.

                        Space and ennui precludes my adumbrating the full set of the false-teeth in the Syria story, so let me pay homage to Catalonia.

                        The democratic government of Spain in the democratic European Union has just handed out a hundred years of prison sentences on democratic Catalan politicians for organising a democratic vote in Catalonia. Worse, a “mob” of their supporters have advanced on...the airport in Barcelona! Commerce, holidays, trade are being WRECKED, wrecked I tell you, by this undemocratic form of protest.

                        But, when the exact same tactic is used in Hong-Kong, the demonstrators are NOT a mob, they are not wreckers, they are ‘democracy-protesters.’

                        When the Hong-Kong protesters confront the Chinese police with Molotovs, knives, even guns, it is the policeman stabbed in the neck who is the villain. When the French police literally disarm Yellow-Vest protesters –that is, to blow their hands off– even Humpty Dumpty runs out of words, so a complete media veil of secrecy is thrown over the removal of eyeballs, hands and even lives by the gendarmes.

                        George Orwell’s novel 1984 was supposed to be a dystopian work of fiction, a warning of the perversions of truth which would be required to sustain totalitarianism if we were not careful.

                        In 2019, it has become a User’s Manual, a play-book
                        , and some of the worst hypocrites in the world – otherwise known as the free-media in free-countries – deploy it to the nodding approbation of the political-classes they serve.

                        As Humpty Dumpty said, “The question is, which is to be master – that’s all.”

                        Comment

                        • Gocka
                          Senior Member
                          • Dec 2012
                          • 2306

                          There are obvious double standards. I wouldn't call it an Orwellian conspiracy but simple human bias.

                          I think it come down to perception. I people look at how stable and affluent the country is and assume that countries like France and Spain or stable democratic and prosperous and therefor anyone who stands up to those establishments must be a trouble maker. They look at China, Syria, and others as undemocratic and unstable places and therefor anyone who stands up to those establishments is obviously just seeking democracy.

                          Bias due to political orientation is also a factor.

                          You also have to take into consideration where and who the media gets its information from. Investigative journalism isn't what it used to be. Very few outlets send anyone out into the field to actual investigate. They rely on 2nd and 3rd hand sources. Most of the time the only people on the ground are government affiliated or employed and control the narrative. That is also not to say its some coordinated conspiracy to mislead. If you are a government employee working in an intelligence service, your job is to further the interests of your country, you are going to have a clear bias on any given situation depending on how that situation relates to your national interests.

                          If anyone is to blame for this its media companies who have basically abandoned journalism for sensationalist talk shows, because talk shows are cheaper to produce and bring in much more viewership. Society is also to blame, because we prefer to watch biased talk shows because actual journalism is sometimes dry. Then we get upset when we discover we have been mislead. We encourage and reward the media for acting in this manner.

                          Don't watch Rachel Maddow, and Sean Hanity and demand that news outlets go back to actually having boots on the ground.

                          Comment

                          • Carlin
                            Senior Member
                            • Dec 2011
                            • 3332

                            Is Zaev planning to resign as a result of the EU veto??

                            Зоран Заев ќе си поднесе оставка, дознава „Инфомакс“ од доверливи и добро упатни извори во СДСМ. Ваквата одлука на Заев доаѓа по неуспехот во Брисел и недобивањето на датум за почеток на преговори со ЕУ и покрај промената на државното име, договорот со Бугарија и Албанија Од она што го дознава „Инфомакс“ од утринава во …

                            Comment

                            • Carlin
                              Senior Member
                              • Dec 2011
                              • 3332

                              North Macedonia PM Zaev calls for early election, blasts EU

                              By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
                              Sat., Oct. 19, 2019

                              SKOPJE, Macedonia - A “disappointed and outraged” North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev says he will propose an early election in the face of the European Union’s decision not to start membership talks with his country.

                              Zaev said at a news conference Saturday that the date for the snap election will be discussed and, hopefully, agreed at a Sunday meeting with the country’s president, his coalition partners and the opposition leader.

                              “Europe has not delivered what it has promised. A huge injustice has been done to us. ... I am disappointed and outraged,” Zaev told reporters in Skopje.

                              EU leaders failed to reach a consensus Friday on whether to open membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia, amid stiff opposition to the move from France.





                              Last edited by Carlin; 10-19-2019, 09:36 AM.

                              Comment

                              • Gocka
                                Senior Member
                                • Dec 2012
                                • 2306

                                The naivety of it all is infuriating. All the focus was put on the name and Greece, for 25 years that's all anyone paid attention to. Even Bulgaria didn't get the chance to block Macedonia (I'm certain they would have). Despite the obvious hurdles of Greece and Bulgaria, does anyone really believe Macedonia is anywhere near EU standards anyway. Are these people that delusional that they thought it was purely the name holding them back? If Macedonia was such a shoe in for EU entry, the EU would have put pressure on Greece to back off and allow Macedonia entry.

                                I've been saying for years that the EU was always using the likes of Bulgaria and Greece as an excuse to not admit Macedonia, I never believed they actually wanted that to happen. I'm convinced they never thought we would be stupid enough to change our name.

                                Why would the EU want the likes of Macedonia and Albania in the EU? So western Europe can further drive down the value of their local labor markets. Or so they can admit a couple million welfare cases. Or so the Albanian mafia can more easily smuggle drugs, weapons, and organs. Neither country has anything to offer, and they would both require huge amounts of EU funds to bring them anywhere near EU standards. Then there is their shit judicial, and political systems.

                                Again, how can anyone be so delusional and naive that they could believe that the door was closed for 25 years purely because of a depute over the word North.

                                We have to be the most short sighted people on the planet.

                                Comment

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