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North Macedonia External Relations Briefing: NATO Membership and Start of EU Accession Talks in the Face of COVID 19 Adela Gjorgjioska

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North Macedonia External Relations Briefing: NATO Membership and Start of EU Accession Talks in the Face of COVID 19 Adela Gjorgjioska ISSN: 2560-1601 Vol. 27, No. 4 (MK) March 2020 North Macedonia external relations briefing: NATO membership and start of EU accession talks in the face of COVID 19 Adela Gjorgjioska 1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11. +36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: CHen Xin Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01 NATO membership and start of EU accession talks in the face of COVID 19 In the last week of March two foreign policy developments were announced. On the 26th of March, European Union leaders gave N. Macedonia a formal approval to open accession negotiations to join the bloc. On the 27th of March, the country officially became NATO’s 30th member, upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the US State Department in Washington DC.1 In the period of post-socialist transition (since 1991), the country’s political elites portrayed EU and NATO memBership as intertwined “strategic goals”. The accompanying political discourse described their attainment as the pathway to security, stability and prosperity.2 The challenge posed by the Covid 19 exposed new contradictions in this standpoint. Firstly, it began to shed a new light on the meaning and practical value of concepts such as (human) security in relation to NATO and international solidarity in relation to the EU. Secondly, it served to expose a growing gap between the goals of the political elites and the urgent needs of the society at large. NATO membership and security in the context of Covid 19 In a video statement issued on the 27th of March, President Stevo Pendarovski described the country’s official membership in the NATO Alliance as “a historic success that after three decades of independence finally confirms Macedonian security and guarantees our future”.3 Similarly, at a news conference Technical Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski stated that by joining the Alliance “N.Macedonia becomes a factor of stability in the region, exporter of security and a country in which citizens and children have a safe future”.4 Such celebratory exclamations by the political elites were met with a lukewarm response by the broader public. This had to do with four processes. Firstly, the process of NATO accession was directly related to the country’s name change from the Republic of Macedonia to the Republic of North Macedonia. That is to say, only after the Prespa Agreement on the name change was signed, 1 “N. Macedonia joins NATO as 30th Ally” available at: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_174589.htm 2 “Macedonia in Crisis” available at: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/macedonia-corruption- ethnic-politics-levica-protests/ 3 “We deserve a new chapter in achieving the country’s strategic goals” available at: https://pretsedatel.mk/en/president-pendarovski-on-eu-and-nato-membership-we-deserve-a-new- chapter-in-achieving-the-countrys-strategic-goals/ 4“Spasovski: By joining NATO we become a factor of stability and https://mia.mk/spasovski-by-joining- nato-we-become-factor-of-stability-exporter-of-security/?lang=en 1 Greece agreed to unblock N. Macedonia’s accession to the Alliance.5 Secondly, in light of the failed referendum on the name change in 2018, it is hard to assign NATO membership the status of a consensually shared societal goal.6 Thus, the decision to change the country’s name in exchange for NATO membership can best be described as one brought by the political elites, as well as a decision which prioritized the (prospect of) advancement along a certain pathway in international relations (membership in NATO and an improved prospect for EU membership) over questions of national self-determination and history.7 Thus, when NATO membership was finally officialized, it illustrated the contrast between the celebratory mood of the political elites and the despondent mood of the society at large. Fourthly, the fact that the announcement of the country’s NATO membership coincided with the rising spread of Covid 19, brought to the surface questions regarding the contemporary relevance of the Alliance to respond to the real challenges to human security in the 21st century such as Covid 19. On the 27nd of march, it was announced that N.Macedonia is using NATO’s Next- Generation Incident Command System (NICS) to coordinate its national response to the COVID-19 crisis and to provide its public with real-time information and advice.8 However, the added value of the platform remained to be proven in the context of the country’s limited human, transport, medical and infrastructure resources. On the 30th of March the country used NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) to request international assistance such as gloves, protective suits and goggles, and surgical masks.9 At the time of writing it is not yet known whether any country responded positively to this call. Overall, such actions did little to answer how exactly NATO membership is addressing the threats to human survival, livelihood and dignity that come from the absence of human, environmental, energy, infrastructure and socio-economic security, which are wide-spread even 5 Gjorgjioska, M. (2020). Ethnicity and Nationality in and around the ‘Prespa Agreement’ on the Macedonia Name Issue, European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online, 17(1), 190-211. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22116117_01701009 6 The referendum on the name change was held in September 2018. It posed the following question: “Are you in favour of EU and NATO membership by accepting the agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Greece”. With only 36,89% participation, the referendum on the name change failed. In the absence of popular legitimacy the decision to accept the Prespa Agreement was brought by the Parliament. 7 Gjorgjioska, M. (2020). Ethnicity and Nationality in and around the ‘Prespa Agreement’ on the Macedonia Name Issue, European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online, 17(1), 190-211. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22116117_01701009 8 “Coronavirus response: NATO boosts capacity of North Macedonia to deal with coronavirus crisis” https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_174605.htm?selectedLocale=en 9 “North Macedonia requests international assistance in the fight against COVID-19” available at: https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/3/pdf/20200330-EADRCC-2020-70- rfa_nom.pdf 2 in normal conditions. For instance, human life and livelihood in the country is under alarmingly high levels of threat posed by illnesses, environmental and soil pollution, road unsafety, workplace insecurity, economic precarity etc, all of which indicate that human security is facing a downward trend.10In particular, the Covid 19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities in terms of healthcare infrastructure, but also the broader socio-economic precarity of the large share of the population. In such a context, NATO membership offered abstract concepts such as “collective defence” and concrete burdens such as the members’ pledge to reach the target defense spending of at least 2% of GDP by 2024 (which for Macedonia will mean an annual cost of around 200 million euros). EU accession talks and international solidarity On the 26th of march the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with N.Macedonia and Albania. The Council also endorsed the Commission Communication on “Enhancing the accession process – A credible EU perspective for the Western Balkans”, which lays out the proposal for the new enlargement methodology.11 Such announcements about the improved prospect of future memberships arrived in a public domain saturated with news of EU’s abdication of responsibility vis a vis an existing member- Italy. Namely, by the 14th of March, not a single EU member state had sent Italy the supplies it had requested via the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre.12 On the 20th of march EC rejected the request by Bujar Osmani, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government for European Affairs in charge of European Affairs, to lift the export requirements for personal protective equipment for the countries from the Western Balkans.13 On 15 March, the Commission introduced export authorisation requirements for exports of personal protective equipment outside of the European Union. The only countries exempted from the export authorisation requirements are members of the European Free Trade Association – Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. A similar exemption is being granted to Andorra, the Faroe Islands, San Marino and the Vatican, as well as the associated 10 “NATO brings security only for the elites”, available at https://antropol.mk/2019/02/08/nato-nosi- bezbednost-samo-za-elitite-i-kapitalot/ 11 “EU leaders endorse Council conclusions on North Macedonia and Albania” available at; https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2020/03/27/eu-leaders-endorse-council-conclusions-on-north- macedonia-and-albania/ 12“The EU Is Abandoning Italy in Its Hour of Need” available at: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/14/coronavirus-eu-abandoning-italy-china-aid/ 13 “The EC did not accept Bujar Osmani’s request” available at https://faktor.mk/evropskata-komisija- ne-go-prifati-baranjeto-na-bujar-osmani- 3 countries and territories that have special relations with Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.14 On the 30th of march, the European Commission has announced up to €38 million in immediate support for the Western Balkans to tackle the health emergency caused by coronavirus and reallocation of €374 million to help the socio-economic recovery of the region. Specifically, with regards to Macedonia, the EU has announced an assistance of €4 million to cover the immediate needs of their public health systems. Moreover, to help mitigate the socio- economic impact of the coronavirus, the EU will also redirect funds from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).
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