In response to Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Antonijo Miloshoski’s request for the government to forward to Parliament “the protocol and the negotiating framework with Bulgaria,” Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said Wednesday in a Facebook post that the French proposal to unblock the country’s EU path has not been officially received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so it could not be forwarded, transmits MIA.
He also said no specific protocol was in existence “except maybe the minutes from the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, which was formed in line with the 2017 Friendship Treaty.”
“Commission members have met only once so far, in 2019, and the minutes from the session have been publicly available for three years,” the FM wrote, noting that those minutes may be considered only a draft protocol as the Intergovernmental Commission had not convened since then.
In his post, the foreign minister said he had always accepted Foreign Affairs Committee invitations, although, he stressed, he had not always felt welcome there. He also said the committee did not show any willingness to cooperate on ambassadorial appointments.
However, he wrote, “I agree to schedule a meeting soon so I can present all foreign policy-related issues.” “At the same time,” he added, “I urge the chairman to schedule the session to appoint several key ambassadors whose appointments have been unnecessarily stopped by his not scheduling this session.” Miloshoski, also in a Facebook post, said he had sent his request for the documents to both FM Osmani and Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski.
“The government has no right to hide from the public any documents related to Macedonia,” Miloshoski wrote, adding that government officials had “a constitutional and moral duty to accept and take part in a parliamentary debate.”
