Recently, the MP Antonijo Miloshoski disseminated a disinformation, claiming that 7 EU member-states were against awarding negotiation date to North Macedonia.
This disinformation was indirectly denied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, Miroslav Lajcak, who stated that none of the member-states said “no” for awarding negotiation date to North Macedonia.
However, despite the denial, the MP Miloshoski continued to disseminate disinformation on his official profiles on social media. Namely, he published a post on his Facebook profile with a picture that is a screenshot of an article published in the French newspaper Les Echos. In the comment of the picture the MP says that the negotiation date was blocked by France, The Netherlands and Denmark, and he asks whether this French newspaper spreads fake news.
The F2N2 team found this article published in Les Echos. If one reads the whole article, they will find that the event the MP mentions actually happened on 16 May 2018, at the European Summit in Sofia. In the article it is also mentioned that since then, Paris, The Hague and Copenhagen had remained isolated, but that they benefited from the fact that Berlin could not make a decision without consulting its Parliament. It is also stated that the situation would probably be different in October, when the French position would be more difficult to hold because of the impossibility for the Union to postpone a decision indefinitely.
The next source which the MP calls upon is the Croatian portal Direktno. As in the case mentioned before, through a screenshot and a text, he asks again whether the Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marija Pejchinovikj Burikj also spreads fake news that several member-states are against awarding a negotiation date. The headline of the article contains a statement from Pejchinovikj Burikj in Croatian language which reads as following: “I am sorry that there is no consensus to honor the progress”. In another screenshot, the MP has underlined another part of the statement in which it is mentioned that the number of member-states that have certain reservations has been even increased.
It is true that this is part of the statement of Pejchinovikj Burikj, but the MP took only those parts that suit him. In another part of the statement, the Minister says that France and The Netherlands were against a negotiation date, but with the addition that the Dutch Parliament adopted a resolution against negotiation date for Albania, due to the unsatisfactory fight against corruption. She also states that the reason for postponement in Germany is the fact that the Commission published the progress report for the candidate countries only after the elections for the European Parliament took place, so the Bundestag did not have enough time to consider it, and that it would do this at the end of September. Additionally, the German Chancellor gave the following statement for MIA: “I will do everything in my power for this positive decision to be adopted, because North Macedonia has done an exemplary job with the Prespa Agreement, an excellent job, and we discussed this yesterday. Indeed, it is a matter of several weeks, but our commitment stands, and, as for me, I will stake my entire political weight for this.”
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