Siljanovska-Davkova: North Macedonia deserves EU membership under Copenhagen criteria
At the 22nd European Summit in Salzburg the president listed 17 positive reports, full policy alignment and warned of the heavy concessions made during accession.
President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova addressed the 22nd European Summit in Salzburg while taking stock of North Macedonia's three-and-a-half decades of statehood and its long EU integration journey.
Remarks at the Salzburg summit
She reminded attendees that, since independence, North Macedonia has spent 21 years as an EU candidate and has received 17 positive reports, accompanied by a high degree of harmonization with EU legislation and “100 percent alignment with the common European foreign and security policy.”
On the core question of membership she was explicit: “I want us to be where we deserve to be, because of the Copenhagen criteria.”
Siljanovska-Davkova also stressed the cost the country paid on its path toward integration, saying no European state has borne such a heavy load: North Macedonia changed its state flag, its constitutional name and adopted 36 constitutional amendments, most of them, she said, imposed from abroad.
Her remarks framed the country’s demands as a matter of procedural fairness under EU accession rules and a call for recognition of sustained legal and policy alignment.
Speakers and attendees at the summit debated Europe's global role under the heading “Does Europe still remain a global player,” the forum where the president presented North Macedonia's case.
Photo: press material from the event
