As Zoran Zaev sets out his vision of prosperity and integration for the Balkans, there's one major risk.
The prime minister of Republic of North Macedonia hopes that his country's imminent NATO membership will be part of a wider process that would put the region into the European Union and lay the foundation for its economic development over the next decade. But the rise of nationalists in the EU parliamentary elections in May could block that goal.
"If we intend to be together, we must stop thinking that everything in the world started from our nations," Zaev said. "And not only in the Balkans."
Zaev said integration could boost the living standards of some of Europe's poorest people and to stop the flow of their most talented people to the west. Yet the nationalist sentiment that sparked Europe's bloodiest post-World War II killings is still causing divisions.
Nationalist politicians remain influential in the western Balkans. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serb minority leader Milorad Dodik has emerged as the most powerful politician by advocating partition of a country still grappling with the aftermath of the wars of the 1990s.
"I hope that politicians will be more in favor of the states and common European society than in their or party polls," Zaev said. "That's the future of the world."
For his nation of 2 million, he hopes NATO membership will help kick-start the economy, which came to a standstill during the corruption scandals of 2017 that brought him to power. Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras agreed last year to change the nation's name, prompting Greece to lift its veto over its neighbor's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the EU.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the two leaders Saturday for their courage in reaching a compromise.
"I had given up," she said at a gathering of senior defense and foreign policy officials in Munich. "In all of those protracted conflicts for which we have not found solutions, if you have the necessary courage, you can find one."
Zaev hopes NATO membership will help increase foreign investment. He projects extra investment of as much as $340 million a year on top of the $240 million the country received in 2017.
One thing he's not worrying about, though, is the likely change of leadership in Greece after this year's election. The leader of Greek opposition party New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said last month that Greece retains the right to veto its neighbor's bid to join the EU at any time.
"It's easier to comment on something when you are an opposition politician," Zaev said. "I think the rhetoric will change once he is in power."
����
(Dudik reported from Prague. Slav Okov and Eleni Chrepa contributed to this report.)
