Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Warhey and Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Silva tour Sofia and Skopje
The German ambassador has already spoken with the caretaker Prime Minister
The European Commission and EU countries have begun to put pressure on President Rumen Radev and caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev to lift their veto on the start of Northern Macedonia’s EU membership talks.
The aim is for the caretaker government and the head of state to approve the scheduling of an intergovernmental conference with northern Macedonia in June, which will give a technical start to accession talks.
European Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhei and Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Silva will try to pressure Radev and his government in Sofia on Friday. The two arrive in Bulgaria early in the morning for talks with the president, caretaker prime minister and foreign minister Svetlan Stoev. In the afternoon, the EU Commissioner and the Portuguese go to Skopje. The two countries are expected to be offered a plan to break the blockade with the Bulgarian veto, Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani announced on Thursday. Yesterday he talked with the Bulgarian ambassador Angel Angelov.
Bulgaria has suspended the start of PCM negotiations for EU membership due to unresolved bilateral issues as early as the end of 2020. For Sofia, the problem is the demands for the negotiating chapters to be signed in the official EU and Macedonian languages, and Bulgaria insists on the PCM’s constitutional language. . In addition, the demands of the previous Bulgarian government include writing in the negotiating framework a condition for PCM to solve its bilateral problems with Bulgaria – clearing history textbooks of misinterpretations, ending hate speech, respecting the rights of people with Bulgarian passports and building infrastructure between the two. countries. However, some European countries oppose the inclusion of bilateral issues in the framework.
The new Bulgarian government and President Radev have so far been reluctant to make any concessions to northern Macedonia.
Sofia will support
same position,
Svetlana Stoev, the caretaker Foreign Minister, also took part in the inauguration. However, immediately after forming the caretaker cabinet in Sofia, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev expressed hope that Bulgaria would lift its veto on the negotiating framework.
“The Republic of Northern Macedonia is ready at any moment to start negotiations with Bulgaria on bilateral issues,” RSM Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said on Thursday. On the second day, he visited Brussels.
Sofia has also proposed a second way out of the blockade, which provides for a bilateral settlement of disputes. However, this requires swift work by the months-long joint historical commission and the convening of a bilateral intergovernmental conference to review relations and compliance with the 2017 friendship treaty.
German Ambassador to Sofia Christoph Eichorn had a meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Yanev on Thursday, the government’s press service said. Among the topics discussed were Bulgaria’s relations with Northern Macedonia.
So far, Germany is one of the countries that is most actively trying to change Bulgaria’s position so that the start of negotiations with Albania is not blocked because of the Macedonians. In addition, Berlin is committed to preparing the negotiating framework during its EU presidency in 2020. It was this document that met with the Bulgarian veto.
“26 member states are being held hostage to some petty national interest of a country that harms the entire EU and destroys the confidence of the Western Balkans in it,” said German Ambassador to Skopje Anke Holstein during a discussion on EU membership.
Authorities in Skopje to unilaterally annul the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness with Bulgaria, meanwhile called on the leader of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE in Northern Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski. The agreement was signed in August 2017 and paved the way for PCM’s Euro-Atlantic integration.
“We conclude that this is not a neighborhood agreement, but an obstacle to Macedonia’s EU integration. We have no choice but to unilaterally leave this treaty and ask for international help. Let’s sit together and prepare a new contract with Bulgaria, but with guarantees. I believe that
in Bulgaria
new ones will come
political forces,
who will be interested in seeing Macedonia integrated into the EU, “Mickoski said in an interview with FOCUS weekly.
“Why is it not possible? We said that it was not possible to have a Bulgarian veto and that would not be an obstacle, but we saw what happened. We called ourselves brothers. Zaev gave interviews and said that we are one and the same people? Bulgaria was not an obstacle and was our biggest support for the EU, “he added.
The opposition leader expects “a comprehensive diplomatic offensive by the EU against Bulgaria”. He promised strong opposition in parliament against “any change in textbooks.” according to him
“They are Bulgarians
product of two
contract –
San Stefano
and the Berlin ”
“Our eastern neighbor was formed as a Russian principality with the sole purpose of getting the then tsarist Russia to warm waters. “Unlike them, our people have fought for a state on their own,” Mickoski said.
– .
