The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, today addressed the International Conference titled “Leaving Europe’s waiting room - overcoming the crisis of EU enlargement in the Western Balkans”, organized by the Centre for South East European Studies at the University Karl-Franzens, University in Graz, Austria.

The President in his speech stressed that the desire of the Balkan peoples for European future contributed to calming the Balkans in the last decade. Reminding conference participants that the Republic of Macedonia recently received the European Commission Progress Report on European integration, recommending for the fourth time to set a date for opening negotiations, President Ivanov said that the Republic of Macedonia is now in anticipation whether it will finally be allowed to leave Europe’s waiting room. President Ivanov said that the European Commission has shown innovativeness on how to proceed, innovativeness which should be respected at the upcoming European Council meting in December.

The Macedonian President stressed that the Republic of Macedonia has met the political membership criteria, and that one of them is respect for human rights, including the right to identity of every individual, every group and community, the right to self-identification and human dignity. The Republic of Macedonia to join the EU it must respect and guarantee the identity and dignity of its citizens.

"Occasionally, the issue of enlargement fatigue in the EU appears, and has anyone posed the question are you tired of waiting", President Ivanov said, adding that the integration has strong mobilizing power and that the problems within the EU should not be an excuse. On the contrary, the Republic of Macedonia wants to participate in bringing solutions concerning the common home, the Macedonian President concluded.

Stressing that the conference takes place on the birthday of the visionary of Europe - Jean Monnet, President Ivanov took the opportunity to call on the European leadership to remain consistent to the great idea of the founding-fathers of Europe.

"I want to believe that in the future we will be able to start negotiations for membership in the European Union. In this process, we do not want privileges, but the same criteria applied to the other Member States of the Union. Since this will certainly be beneficial not only for my country, but also for the region and Europe", President Ivanov said.

The conference, which was attended by a large number of policy makers, analysts and academia representatives from several European countries, aims to contribute to the revival of the enlargement process, through discussions and analysis of bilateral disputes, regional cooperation and accession negotiations.