It is good to be in Berlin again. As a life long professor, it is also good to be back in my old role, as a lecturer on political issues. I better enjoy it until you start fielding questions at me.

As a professor, one of the things I never could quite understand is the phenomenon of a great number of students, that would finish their studies up until the last year, often until the last one or two exams needed for their graduation, and then just stop. I don’t know if this is the case in Germany, but in my practice I’ve had a great number of these cases and I’ve often felt a particular sadness over it. It was incomprehensible for me, why would anybody stop when his life’s work is at a completion.

It is the same feeling I get when I consider the state of the integrations in the region I’m coming from, and especially in my country. It is as if, the easier and smoother things get, the less interest we can find in completing them. This is the time when we start talking about fatigue. Even worse, we turn a complete blind eye to the incredible success we have achieved and begin concentrating more on the problems and the possibilities for failure. I’m sometimes wondering why do we always need to have a crisis, so we get spurred into action? Why are we so averse to things going good for us? The Balkans lately have been a constant stream of good news. Macedonia has been a country in which we no longer speak of fulfilling the necessary standards for integration. We are beginning to speak of setting the standards for our neighbors. Yet, at the same time, it is as if the integration process is getting harder and slower, not easier and faster.

Ladies and gentlemen. It is especially important for us Macedonians that the integration of our country into the Euro-Atlantic community is done on merit. We realize that it includes a significant transformation of the way of doing things in Macedonia. Macedonia needs to begin the process of negotiations to join the European Union. It is the next logical and natural step.  It is very important for us that this transformation is done on a continuous basis, with constant progress, with measurable and implementable projects. This is a way of integration, of association, through interaction. We can’t have integration without constant progress, without constant advancement. We need a learning curve, not a flat line, not repeating the same things all over and over again. Stopping the process of integration is impossible. In time of more and more open borders, of constant interaction between the Macedonian and the European companies, citizens, the cultural, religious and educational organizations, it is futile to have another wall drawn between the countries of the European Union and the countries that are applying for membership.  The administration, the bureaucracy, must not fall behind the private sector, behind the individual citizens. Having the high ideals of United Europe interpreted through the dry and flat language of the working groups, project management and benchmark realization has not undermined the appeal of the European idea for my citizens. The polls show unanimous determination to join both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Union. We are constantly reminded of this through contacts with local citizens who have the desire to live without borders, to travel and to exchange ideas and experiences. We are constantly reminded of this by our businessmen, who are eager to show their worth at the great open marketplace next door.

Respected. There is a sense of bitter sweet irony to be saying this here, at this place, at the very border, at the very place where this city was divided. The power of an idea is never stronger then at the very place where it ends. Living for almost 20 years now, at the sidelines of a transforming, changing Europe, you would forgive our impatience. Just as East Berliners were looking over the Wall, at the place across, where Freedom was not just an abused word. Two nations that have both known tirany have a peculiar understanding for each other. We are both aware of where we are coming from. We have witnessed events that shake the faith in mans inherent goodness.

Macedonia was standing for a long time before our own equivalent of a Wall. The allure of the ideals, of the prosperity and freedom which we can see over the border, gives us the right to say that we must never have cities, countries, people divided anymore.  You know much better then me that closing the border, isolation is not an effective way of interaction. Out of a lack of communication, prejudices are born. Once these prejudices are set in place, it can take a generation of work to have them removed. Therefore, the strength of Europe is not in its tanks, or the barbed wire. It lies in its ideas, in its values. Europe mustn’t fear from an interaction, from engagement. It can influence countries far away from its physical reach. It can touch people, motivate them, inspire them. An engagement of Europe with the Balkans can transform both, in a positive way. It can add a new value, not only in an economic sense, but in a spiritual, in a human way. Let us grow and mature together. I find it unexplainable how the word fatigue can ever be used in this issue. How can we feel fatigued before the opportunity to make something grand, together? I have always found it more natural that joy, energy, excitement is the proper feeling, the proper mood inspired by the realization that European unification is finally at hand.

A very important move for my country is on hand. The abolishment of the visa regime is announced after a long process that guarantees that Macedonia will contribute to the secure borders, efficient procedures and the dynamic movement of people within Europe. It is a perfect example how, when the procedures of the integration are clear, measurable and with adequate deadlines, a country can be motivated to do its utmost. To top this, the quick pace of the reforms needed to make this move happen in Macedonia was an inspiration to other countries in the region, which have benefited enormously from the exchange of the experience. This is the power of the European allure at its best. Provoking change, provoking advancement in its midst, which leaves everybody better off in the end. Conversely, neglecting to extend the perspective of enlargement, integration and further openness, in cases when all objective conditions have been met, does nothing to encourage countries to undertake further reforms, which are often painful. Anything that pushes the Euro-Atlantic perspective further away from the Western oriented countries undermines the energy that Europe can generate and inspire. It wastes away a valuable currency Europe uses to spread stability and good will in its vicinity.

Respected. Macedonia has experienced the full weight of the indecisiveness of the European countries and the often seen hesitation and doubtfulness. Last year in Bucharest we’ve seen a face of Europe that does not do service to its name. We’ve had petty quarrels dominate the debate that was supposed to be concentrated on the great perspective of a united and whole Europe, safe and secure. The widespread silence experienced by Macedonia, but also by Georgia, and by the Ukraine, was much more bitterly felt for us then the loud attempts of one single country to look for flaws and insufficiencies in my country. Even this esteemed institution has had its moments of doubt, insisting that Europe must pause its enlargement after the admission of Croatia. That it is not ready to accept new members. Sirs, it is not in the essence of Europe for the to think this way. It is often said that united Europe is a peace project. A project to stop new wars. But, at the same time, we must not allow ourselves to work on this project only when there is a war, a crisis, when bodies are mounting at the borders of Europe. I don’t think it does a great service to the legacy of Chancellor Adenauer to lay aside the hard work of the unification of Europe, because the times are good, and the crisis is over. This is precisely the time to work on the friendships, the links, the projects that will prevent the next crisis. That will broaden the circle of stability and security around Europe. That will give hope to farther and farther reaches. It was an almost missionary work done by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, to help bring the ideas of Christian democracy to Macedonia. Your representatives in Macedonia have worked tirelessly to convey the true sense of democracy and conservative values in the often ideologicaly chaotic days after the collapse of Communism in the Balkans. It was often on the German political model that Macedonian politicians have made their first learning steps. Let’s not allow this huge work to remain unappreciated.

Macedonia has fulfilled all necessary standards to join NATO. Our soldiers are already full members in sharing the risks and the dangers with their comrades from Germany, and all the other allied countries. We do this in Bosnia, where the strength of the Euro-Atlantic idea has stopped a hellish scenario. We are in Lebanon, patrolling the outer reaches of Europe. And we are together in Afghanistan, pushing back an enemy that has shown complete disregard for simple humanity.

While engaged in all our joint projects, Macedonia is prepared to listen to any rational objection for its bid to join NATO and to begin the negotiations for EU integration. We are willing to listen, and we have proved many times that we can make tough decisions and sacrifices, when we find them necessary for the benefit and future progress of our country. What we are not prepared to do is to listen to open-ended attempts to attack our pride and identity. We want dearly to become members of NATO and the EU, but that must not come at the expense of our dignity.

At this day and age, mercifully, in Europe, we do not have the walls in their old sense. But we have a myriad of procedures, impediments, regulations, which sometimes appear as if they have been deliberately put in place to stop the interaction of between men, the commercial exchange, the exchange of ideas. The grand idea of Europe, of abolishing the borders, has been also to dismantle this system. To do away with the artificial obstacles for commerce, for trade. To allow everybody to compete based on his own worth, not on some unfair advantage. It was this system that brought peace and prosperity in Europe. That enabled Europe to become the beacon of hope for the World. Germany, in the heart of this continent, has been the main dynamo of the European economic miracle and it is an inspiration to us all.

Macedonia has worked tirelessly to cut down as much of the obstacles laid before us as we can. We are working further to open our economy toward the world. In the past years we’ve seen an enormous reformist drive to liberate the creative spirit of our people. We have invested in our most precious resource – our own people. We have opened new state and private universities. We have seen a galloping rise in computer literacy and have enabled our schools with latest technology, so that our children can contribute to a modern economy. We do this for the simple reason to develop our own country, to make it a proper home for our people, who will not have to look for their happiness abroad. We have made huge strides to offer the opportunity of investment and mutually beneficial exchange before the companies from Europe. The latest World Bank Doing Business report has notified that Macedonia is moving in leaps toward creating a beneficial atmosphere for the business community. In this, we have often used the shining example of the German economic development, and its model of a free and fair economy. This message was often brought to us by the many Macedonians who are living as exemplary citizens in Germany. They were most often the first to come back and invest in their home towns and villages, bringing with them not only financial resources, but more importantly, the work ethics and the respect for the rule of law that has made Germany an example for the modern world.

The future, for Macedonia, is wide open, and we are prepared to grasp it. In this, we need support, to remove the final few obstacles that remain before Macedonia and its citizens, its companies and its potential, can be shown to the world in full. The Macedonian wine, the agricultural products, textile and raw materials will find its way to Europe more easily and more openly. The integration of Macedonia would add perhaps a small market to the European complex. But it will help bring prosperity and stability in a region where violent spasms were often able to affect the heart of Europe itself. It will bring strategic cohesiveness to Europe. It will be a step further toward completing the great project started by herr Adenauer, whose spirit endures and grows with every new step that the European community of nations makes.

Respected. I was recently reminded of a little moment from the life of herr Adenauer. Of a case when, as a Prime Minister of still occupied Germany, he was told that he must stand aside from the red carpet, that he is not allowed to have the same respect under the protocol. Adenauer deliberately broke the protocol and proudly stood on the red carpet, signaling that humiliation is not a way to build a lasting friendship. That his country is prepared to start assuming its responsibilities. I come here as the leader of a country that was itself often told to stand aside from the red carpet. I also come to say that Macedonia is prepared to stand on the red carpet. We are not going to allow to stand on the sidelines. We will assume our responsibilities and we keep our dignity. Thank you.