"YELLOW CARD" OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Macedonia and the European Union

AIM Skopje, 14 September, 1997

Almost simultaneously with the celebration of the sixth anniversary of independence of the country, the Macedonian Government experienced another cold shower from the European Union which has largely "profaned" the mentioned celebration. Contrary to expectations, The European Parliament failed to put on the agenda of its latest session ratification of the agreement for cooperation with Macedonia. This fact, but especially that this was the second postponement in a row, caused concern and great disappointment among the domestic public. This has primarily re-opened the dilemma "are we further or closer to the European Union?" It is needless to say that the pessimistic part of this six-year old dilemma has prevailed.

However, contrary to the majority of the public, Macedonian minister of foreign affairs tried to "reassure" the public with the words that "there is no reason for disappointment, but for reality, for realistic observation of the position of Macedonia and results which are achieved in the country". Although it is hard to expect that this stance of the minister can in the least alleviate the feeling of being rejected by Europe among the ordinary citizens, it is quite obvious that with this declaration the Minister has tried to get some breathing space at least for a moment and to throw the hot potato in someone else's lap, in fact those who are responsible for "results which are achieved in the country".

As concerning those who have actually achieved these "results in the country", as well as the (negative) "results" themselves, one can freely say that there were quite a few lately and that they could not have passed unnoticed from abroad. Just in the first six months this year, Macedonia was punished by two "yellow cards" from the European Union which could be a good enough reason for putting away the six-year old independent state "ad acta" concerning European integrations.

Macedonia got its first "yellow card" in March this year after the known students' demonstrations against the law which prescribed teaching in Albanian language at the teachers' college in Skopje, although the government and the ruling party had supported this law. The other "yellow card" was earned after the bloody police intervention in Gostivar on 9 July, which ended with the murder of three citizens of Albanian ethnic origin. If in the former case it was just a mild "Declaration", in the latter it was a real demarche (although its actual title was "statement") in which it was demanded from the Government to ensure "rigorous control of actions of police forces".

It is indeed very difficult to deny that there is a connection between these "yellow cards" and postponement of ratification of the agreement on cooperation of Macedonia with the EU by the European Parliament. On the other hand, it is easy to observe that criticism coming from the West mainly refers to issues connected with unstable interethnic relations, especially between the Albanians and the Macedonians as the two largest ethnic groups. It is needless to say that fear of Europe to accept in its company a country with expressed possibility of an open interethnic conflict - is quite obvious. But, despite everything, it was not at all hard for the chairman of Macedonian parliament to declare on the occasion of the celebration of the sixth anniversary of the independence of the country that allegedly the general assessment of the international community was that a high level of normative, but also actual practising of the rights of ethnic groups was achieved in Macedonia, in compliance with the highest European and world standards. The fact that the relevant international organizations, such as the United Nations, that is its Secretary General, or the Special Rapporteur of UN Commission for Human Rights, Elisabeth Rehn, have given two negative evaluations about development of interethnic relations in the country within just a couple of weeks, is obviously considered to be irrelevant. One should be reminded that in his report concerning further mandate of UN preventive forces in Macedonia, UNPREDEP, Secretary General especially stressed internal ethnic conflicts as the main threat for stability of the country and demanded increase of the number of civilian observers within the country instead of soldiers who would guard its borders. Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission for Human Rights was even more explicit when in the end of her recent visit to Macedonia she sharply criticized the mentioned action of the Government on 9 July with which it tried to "pacify" the Albanians in Gostivar and Tetovo, and this message was intended to be "universal" and refer to all the Albanians in Macedonia. The horrible scenes Ms. Rehn was able to see on video recordings in which Macedonian police beat up completely helpless elderly men and children, or men who had previously surrendered and lay on the ground, without any legal foundations, induced her to demand organizing of courses of democratic behavior for Macedonian police. Ms. Rehn emphasized that Macedonia would not "easily get rid" of her presence making openly an allusion to the nervous demand of the Government to have Macedonia excluded from her mandate which includes all former Yugoslav republics except Slovenia.

If the mentioned "Declaration" and subsequent "Statement" of the European Union, then it is not difficult to understand why the European Union is not in a hurry to establish a higher level of cooperation with Macedonia. There is no doubt that Macedonia's position as the aspirant to accelerated European integration is greatly aggravated by unclarified relations with it neighbours. The dispute with Greece seems to be developing into a life-long one, and the one with Bulgaria concerning language does not appear to be any easier. The favourable beginning of cooperation with FRY concerning establishing of borders has also reached a blind alley, and the relations with Albania still oscillate between hot and cold. The worst of all is that the declared policy of "equi-distance" has not yielded expected results, and on the other hand, there seem to be no new ideas how to surmount these misunderstandings.

A very good illustration of "prestige" which Macedonia enjoys in the EU is the recent episode when the Union publicized its "Agenda 2000" in which Macedonia is not mentioned even in the waiting-room for the 21st century. To make things even more disappointing, besides Macedonia, only Albania, Croatia, FR Yugoslavia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, are not mentioned in this Agenda. Obviously Western Europeans do not share the conviction of the head of the Macedonian parliament that Macedonia has reached the culmination in normative "but also in real achievement" of the rights of ethnic groups. And in the meantime, all citizens of the six-year old Macedonia can do nothing but pay the bill for political "wisdom" of their politicians. But it seems that the worst of all is that nobody knows how high this bill will may be.

IBRAHIM MEHMETI