EU Ambassadors affirmed Wednesday the conclusions on enlargement with the Western Balkans, including a reference on misinterpretation of history and North Macedonia’s long name, MIA reports from Brussels.
The conclusions were frozen due to Bulgaria’s blockade to North Macedonia’s negotiating framework, and the ambassadors accepted Bulgaria’s requirements related to “misinterpretation of history” and use of the long form of the country’s name.
The conclusions are set to be adopted through a written procedure in the next day or two.
Yesterday, the German EU Presidency put forward a new text of the conclusions, incorporating Bulgaria’s demand.
“The Council recalls the Prespa agreement between the Republic of North Macedonia and Greece and the Treaty on Friendship, Good-neighbourliness and Cooperation between the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria and stresses the importance of their continued implementation. These two major steps should put an effective end to any claims based on misinterpretation of history,” read the latest draft-conclusions.
This sentence was not part of the conclusions by the end of November, but Bulgaria insisted on its inclusion, citing the Council conclusions from 2018, under Sofia’s Presidency, when the sentence was mentioned for the first time after the signing of the Prespa Agreement. Since, the sentence did not appear in the conclusions, until yesterday.
According to some diplomats, the compromise still benefits North Macedonia, since the sentence is not in the paragraph relating specifically to North Macedonia, but in the preamble of the text, in the paragraph dedicated to regional reconciliation. However, it relates directly to North Macedonia.
The Union would have not produced any conclusions on enlargement unless a compromise had not been reached, an outcome that would be seen as “debacle” for the German Presidency, say EU diplomats.
In addition, Bulgaria’s pressure on the use of the long form of the country name has also been accepted. The draft uses name Republic of North Macedonia throughout the text, unlike the prior draft-conclusions that used North Macedonia. All other countries, be it EU or non-EU members, are mentioned by their short forms, except for North Macedonia, because Bulgaria considers the short form to represent irredentism.
The conclusions do not unstick the negotiating framework, with Bulgaria continuing to block its adoption, followed by the first intergovernmental conference for the start of the EU accession negotiations.
The Council will officially release the conclusions probably by the end of the week.
