“A promise is only as strong as the solid credibility of those who make it”

On Wednesday, 5 November 2025, MEP Irena Joveva hosted a presentation of a study on tackling youth Euroscepticism using the case of North Macedonia. “For as long as I can remember, we have been hearing that the future of the Western Balkans lies in the European Union,” she stressed, adding that this phrase has been repeated for so long that only few people still believe in it today.

As she recalled at the outset, so much time has passed since the first promises of a European future, that many young people who once believed in it and sought their opportunity in Europe, are now helping their children apply for Erasmus exchanges. Therefore, she is not surprised that many in the region, after years of disappointment, increasingly doubt that enlargement policy is even on the agenda in Brussels.

She went on to point out that the reasons why the enlargement process is not moving forward have been discussed in Brussels for years, but behind the complex terms and bureaucratic explanations, there is often a lack of courage to take more decisive steps. Although, as she assessed, the war in Ukraine has once again revealed that the issue of enlargement is also a strategic issue for the Union itself, the promised new impetus in this area is still not visible.

She stressed that this survey, like many others, shows that young people in North Macedonia still perceive the EU as a space of freedom and opportunity, but at the same time almost half of them doubt that their country will ever become a member.

”This is a clear signal that requires action from both the EU and national authorities.”

As she said, everyone has often failed in the process of approximation – both Brussels and Skopje and the rest of the Western Balkans region.

”Internal political tensions, widespread corruption and the lack of serious reforms have in some places significantly hindered more concrete progress, while the European Union, with its inconsistency and indecision, has sometimes actually rewarded stagnation instead of progress – by maintaining dialogue and cooperation with those political elites who have not shown a real will for change. The result is a loss of trust, a rise in Euroscepticism and an exodus of young people who are leaving their homeland in search of a decent life.”

Joveva stressed that there are friends of the Western Balkans in the European institutions who believe that enlargement is a joint investment in peace, stability and the credibility of the European Union.

”Just as we expect reforms and the strengthening of democracy from our partners, we in the Union must also do our part – keep our word and prove that promises still mean something.”