German MEP and lobbyist for Macedonia Bernd Posselt defended Thursday Martin Trenevski as a great choice for Macedonia’s ambassador to NATO. Asked how he saw Trenevski’s contentious thesis, Posselt, who is member of the Pan-European Union, whose president in Macedonia was Martin Trenevski for years, referred to Trenevski as “pioneer of the European integration in Macedonia”.
Posselt said on the same occasion that in 1994 and 1995, Martin Trenevski, Boris Trajkovski and a few other officials, headed the first Macedonian delegation to the European Parliament and negotiated Macedonia’s integration into the EU.
“They were not parliamentarians; they were paying a private visit. Yet they were Europeans and patriots,” Posselt said.
Posselt, who is paying a visit to Macedonia these days, attacked the opposition saying that they can criticize but cannot go to Strasbourg and Brussels “to blackmail their own government”. The MEP, who accused the opposition of telling on the Government before the EU, refused to specify who does that, saying only “You know them.”
He also appealed to the political parties in Macedonia to keep the internal discussions apart from the European policies and issues and emphasized the necessity of creating consensus.
“They can discuss the country’s internal affairs but not the European integration,” Posselt believes.
He hopes that Macedonia will be set the date for starting accession talks by the time Hungary takes over the EU Presidency next year. He rejected the allegations that the EU tolerates the Greek block, saying that the problem is with the institutions, or more specifically the Council of the EU.
“The Greeks abuse the position of the Council to block it. It is an abuse of the veto by Greece. This is not about tolerance, because what Greece does is unacceptable for us. However, the problem is institutional,” Posselt says.
He expects Macedonia to receive a positive report from the European Commission this year too and the Council to set the date for opening entry talks.
“We intend to initiate a debate at the European Parliament in the fall as to when the Council plans to commence the talks,” the German MEP said.
