Ambassador Jovan Tegovski for Macedonian Diplomatic Bulletin

2007 is yet another in the series of crucial years for the Republic of Macedonia, the Region, and this time round maybe for Europe too.

It is very certain that this year will be crucial, in the true sense of the word, for our country, primarily regarding the attainment of its strategic objectives - full-fledged membership of the European Union and the North-Atlantic Alliance. It is an indisputable fact that we have never been closer to that decisive step ahead. The step that will produce plenty of arguments for our European and Euro-Atlantic friends in favor of reaching the long anticipated decisions for starting accession talks with Macedonia and for inviting the country to join NATO. The well-intentioned remarks from Brussels as to what is expected from a candidate country to do in the next few months may appear difficult to accomplish to some. However, it is attainable, we truly stand a chance and there is plenty of time to take it. It depends solely on us and on whether the political will can transform, through a renewed consensus, into concrete and measurable results.

It may seem paradoxical, yet facts show that the 27 EU member states, or the NATO member countries, find it more easily to reach a consensus over numerous and, very frequently, highly delicate issues. Thus, at the EU Summit in December 2006, a renewed consensus was reached over the enlargement policy rooted in the principles of consolidation, conditioning, and communication and the Union's capacity for admission of new members. The conclusions of the Summit reaffirmed the obligations that the EU undertook in regard to the countries already in the process of enlargement, as well in regard to the European perspective of the countries of the Western Balkans.

However, the realization of this European perspective takes yet another renewed consensus over the EU's Constitution and institutional reforms, which will, in fact, create the necessary conditions for admission of new members. Although arduous and serious discussions are being conducted concerning these issues, the EU's history produces many arguments for us to believe that the right solutions, which will enable unobstructed development of the processes of EU expansion, will be sought out.

In the year commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome - a jubilee which the Republic of Macedonia, although being an EU candidate state member, feels as its own - we look forward to the consensus, not as a magical word that will solve problems, but as a political agreement in the service of the realization of the commitments to building a common European home.