Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Iotova stated that there are only two options for Bulgaria to give the green light to EU’s negotiating framework for North Macedonia, which should incorporate the Bulgarian demands for respect of the Treaty on Friendship, Good-neighbourliness and Cooperation between the two countries.
“Either we will insist that the negotiating framework for the Republic of North Macedonia has a final chapter and to monitor whether the Friendship Treaty is being respected during the negotiation process or to include Bulgaria’s demands for respect of the treaty,” Iotova told Bulgarian National Television (BNT).
According to Iotova, who is a member of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), when the case with Macedonia occurred, not a single EU member state supported Bulgaria’s position, which is unfortunate.
“We have a strong and consensual position with the European institutions in regard to the Republic of North Macedonia. We have a common framework position with the Government. However, there is a setback that we lost almost a year to explain the position to our European partners and win them over to our side,” Iotova told BNT.
