How EU backed North Macedonia's European path into a corner
Besides Ukraine, which has to fight for its European choice, the most complex and challenging path to EU membership has got North Macedonia.
The country, which agreed to change its name and amend its constitution to unblock negotiations, still hasn't been able to open EU accession talks.
The repercussions have not been delayed. The ruling authority suffered a crushing defeat in the "double" elections.
The EU is the most to blame for it. Now Brussels will have to find a way out of this deadlock, according to the article by Yurii Panchenko, a European Pravda's editor – Tired of compromising. What consequences will the EU's mistakes have on relations with North Macedonia?
On 8 May, parliamentary elections and the second round of presidential elections took place in North Macedonia.
President Stevo Pendarovski suffered a resounding defeat in the second round. Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, nominated by the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, beat him.
The defeat of the current government in the parliamentary elections is even more significant.
The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), the party associated with EU accession negotiations, only came third.
The victory, with a significant margin, is celebrated by the opposition of VMRO-DPMNE. The coalition For Macedonia, led by this party, secures 59 seats. And only two more seats are needed to achieve a majority.
They are almost guaranteed to form a new majority.
The election result in North Macedonia was a defeat not only for the current coalition but also for the EU.
Unblocking Macedonia's path to the EU and NATO required a very difficult compromise with Greece.
Greece blocked Macedonia's EU and NATO accession, demanding a change in the country's name and a revision of its historical policiesю Under VMRO-DPMNE, the concept that led to the establishment of the state from ancient Macedonia expanded, which greatly annoyed the Greeks.
After lengthy negotiations, a compromise was reached with Greece. Its terms were quite painful for Macedonia.
The compromise lifted Athens' veto, allowing North Macedonia to join NATO in 2020.
However, unexpectedly, a new obstacle emerged on the path to EU membership – Bulgaria voiced its demands.
Through EU mediation, a compromise was also reached with Bulgaria. According to it, North Macedonia must amend the preamble of its constitution, indicating the Bulgarian people as those who traditionally live on the country's territory alongside Macedonians.
However, the EU failed to consider the fact that the current coalition did not have the votes for amending the constitution.
As a result, North Macedonia, which was granted candidate status back in 2008, still hasn't opened EU accession negotiations.
This led to disillusionment in society with the European choice, as well as in parties that were in power.
Only a breakthrough in EU negotiations could have saved the situation, but the Macedonian government in Brussels didn't want to take such a step.
The election winners will rather occupy the niche of "soft Eurosceptics," demanding that the process of EU accession proceed without painful concessions.
Disillusionment with the European course creates a window of opportunity for Russia and China.
And this is also an extremely undesirable scenario for the EU. After the elections on 8 May, the desired scenario no longer exists. This is the key result of the EU's mistaken policy.