Publication on Euroskepticism in Macedonia Presented

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The publication “Euro-Skepticism in Macedonia, Real Threat or a Bluff”, prepared by analyst Edmond Ademi, presented yesterday, September 11, 2012 at the EU Info Centre in Skopje, concludes that the euro-skepticism in Macedonia fluctuates and mainly depends on European Union’s policies towards Macedonia.

The publication concludes that although there is no relevant political party with anti-European platform at this time, the euro-skepticism in the country is very real.

According to Ademi, the fact that Europe is facing a crossroads due to the global financial and economic crisis contributes to the emergence of euro-skepticism in everyday life and discourse, not only in the EU member states, but also in candidate countries that want to join EU.

The participants in the debate noted that the Government of Macedonia is one of the supporters of euro-skepticism in the country. According to Malinka Risteska-Jordanova, director of the European Policy Institute – the publisher of Ademi’s work – it does that for both utilitarian reasons and because of the name dispute with Greece.

“Now that the EU is in crisis, we see a change of the view that EU can solve all our problems and ensure for us the desired standards of living. On the other hand, we have the name-dispute which is the dominant issue in the country”, Risteska-Jordanova said in the debate.

In the publication, Ademi offers several recommendations in the fight against euro-skepticism and demands from government representatives and institutions to stop the work on creating artificial anti-EU climate and from the Parliament to speed up the adoption of European laws.

Ademi also asks from civic associations and the NGO sector to be more active in the monitoring of European integration processes and in the efforts to present and explain the EU’s concepts to the general public, and from the media to ensure high quality reports on all positive and negative aspects of EU and toe contribute to better understanding of the issues related to the European Union. (Source: Kapital.mk)