THE PROCESS OF MEMBERSHIP OF THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE AND THE IMMEDIATE LEGAL AND POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE MEMBERSHIP

Abstract

After the collapse of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), our country, under its back then constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, immediately began to take all the necessary steps to complete its statehood, starting with the decision to call a referendum on September 8, 1991, in which approximately 95.32% of the citizens voted for an independent sovereign state, which was followed by the adoption of the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Republic of Macedonia on September 17, 1991, which informed the domestic and world public that the Republic of Macedonia was taking responsibility for its destiny into its own hands, and the government in the country was constituted accordingly. This early phase was completed on November 17, 1991, when the first Constitution of the. Republic of Macedonia as an independent state was adopted, consequently beginning the process of its international recognition, which was its key challenge of the foreign policy, including its membership in all key international intergovernmental organizations, such as the UN, the Council of Europe, the EU, the OSCE, NATO, and the like. Without any ambition to comprehensively present all the attempts of the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) for its full membership in the world of international intergovernmental organizations, which requires a very different approach and larger space, to achieve this goal, our country was forced to move along a very difficult path due to the continuous expressed opposition of the neighboring Republic of Greece to the international recognition of our country under its back then constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia. This was confirmed already within the framework of the procedure after the first attempt of our country for its international recognition that it made within the framework of the then so-called EU Conference on the Disintegration of the Former SFRY (under the presidency of Lord Carrington), within which the special so-called Badinter Arbitration Commission, whose main mandate was to examine the fulfillment of the conditions and requirements set out in the "EU Guidelines for the Recognition of the New States of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union" and the "Declaration on Yugoslavia adopted by the Council of the European Community on 16 December 1991" by each new state, including our country, which on 20 December 1991 formally requested its recognition by the EU member states back then.