Everything that has been happening in the relations between the EU and the Republic of North Macedonia in the past 30 years, is a mirror of the real situation in the Union, Rijeka-based Novi List daily says in an article dedicated to country’s EU path.
The daily writes that Greece has blocked the country’s accession to the EU for decades due to the name dispute, which was reportedly resolved with the Prespa Agreement, “better known as the agreement on changing the name of the Republic of Macedonia to the Republic of North Macedonia.”
The daily says that now Bulgaria puts new obstacles on the country’s path to the EU.
“By signing of the Agreement between Bulgaria and Macedonia in 2017, it seemed that at least some open thorny issues between the two countries would be resolved. Unfortunately, in early November this year, Bulgaria informed the European Commission that it was unable to accept the draft negotiating framework for the Republic of North Macedonia and its draft declaration because it does not provide the necessary guarantees for the fulfilment of the conditions Bulgaria seeks,” Novi List reads.
After that, according to the daily, Bulgaria proceeded with the ultimate demands, such as “North Macedonia to give up any claims about the existence of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria”, then “to remove certain Macedonian historical personalities from history textbooks in North Macedonia because they were allegedly Bulgarians,” also “to abandon the use of term ‘Bulgarian fascist occupation’ of Macedonia during World War II.”
“Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva recently said that ‘thirty years after the democratic changes, on the one hand you cannot want to be a member of the European family, and on the other hand to celebrate one of the cruelest dictators of the 20th century – Josip Broz Tito.’ Some, such as Parliament Vice President Veselin Mareshki, leader of the right-wing populist party, have gone a step further. He claimed that Bulgaria and North Macedonia, as one nation, should unite and thus ‘like brothers to automatically become European citizens,’” Croatian daily writes.
Novi List notes that it is interesting that according to a poll, as many as 83.8 percent of Bulgarians support the blockade to North Macedonia, until an agreement on history is reached, i.e. “until North Macedonia agrees to Sofia’s demands.”
“Regardless of how the situation around the Republic of North Macedonia develops, one important fact should be remembered. Greece and Bulgaria are members of the EU, which upon joining the EU accepted the basic agreements of the Union, and thus the rules of conduct in line with European legislation. Therefore, everything that has been happening in the relations between the EU and the Republic of North Macedonia in the past 30 years, is at the same time a mirror of the real situation in the Union,” Novi List concludes.
