Vardar Macedonia’s Dreams Unrealised 25 Years After Independence

"Vardar Macedonia"

(BalkanInsight) - Twenty-five years after becoming independent from Socialist Yugoslavia on September 8, 1991, Macedonia still has external problems with its neighbour Greece and internal problems with democracy which are blocking its ultimate goals of Euro-Altantic integration.

“These goals were set by all political parties after the country gained its independence in 1991, but they didn’t succeed,” Mirjana Malevska, a professor at South East European University, told BIRN.

“The democratisation process in the country is tightly linked with the integration processes and is the main condition to enter the Euro-Atlantic family,” she said.

Macedonia obtained EU candidate status back in 2005. At that point, the country was a regional leader among ex-Yugoslav states in the race to join the European club. In 2009, it was given the recommendation to start the accession negations.

But now the recommendation is at risk. Due to institutional failings in reforms and the ongoing political crisis that has gripped the country, the European Commission said in autumn last year that it would issue another recommendation after Macedonia’s next elections - but only if the polls are judged free and fair and if the country carries out the necessary reforms.

But the unsolved ‘name’ dispute with Greece is another stumbling block in the Euro-Atlantic integration of the country. NATO’s door will also not open to Skopje until two neighbours find a mutual solution for the problem - and Greece is still strongly opposed to Macedonia calling itself Macedonia.

Malveska says that there have been some democratisation efforts but the ongoing political crisis had a negative impact.

“The political crisis emerged after the massive illegal wiretapping by government services. It is massive violation of human rights and freedoms. If the [current] investigations [by the special prosecution into wrongdoing allegedly revealed by the tapes] prove the allegations of corruption true, that would be a jolt for the democratic process in the country”, she said.

The crisis escalated in February 2015, when the opposition Socual Democrats started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes, which it said showed that the VMRO DPMNE-led government was behind the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including ministers. The oppostion said the tapes proved many that government members were involved in various crimes.