Bulgaria holds hostage the political destiny of North Macedonia in an unprecedented move, abusing the EU’s and the international legal rules, which could lead to North Macedonia raising aspects of the “dispute” before an international court or body, according to German Just Access NGO in a paper entitled “Access to the EU and justice denied: How Bulgaria’s actions against North Macedonia amount to abuse of the EU’s accession procedural rules.”
The NGO, which is specialized in international legal disputes and human rights protection, notes that Bulgaria’s “arm-twisting” tactics began in 2019, when it resorted to exerting crude pressure within the EU institutions on the basis of dubious and instrumentalised cultural and historical claims against North Macedonia, Deutsche Welle in Macedonian language reports.
“As things stand, not only is this threatening to destabilize the whole region but is also complicating the relationship between the Western Balkans and the Union,” reads the paper, pointing out that the study is to shed light on the main steps that have characterized North Macedonia’s positive relationship with the Union and demonstrate how “Bulgaria’s hostile stance against its neighbor is abusive under international law in the context of the EU enlargement.”
According to Just Access, talks between both countries shouldn’t allow “the aggressive and unfair stance of Bulgaria against its smaller neighbour to go unnoticed, as its instrumentalisation of EU law and cultural-identarian offensive arguments are negatively impacting the rule of law in Europe.”
“Bulgaria’s constant and instrumentalized opposition to eventually allowing North Macedonia to reach its next step in the EU accession process takes place in an institutional and legal context which concerns the whole Union and its direct neighbourhood; not only Bulgaria.
“Yet, so far it appears as if Bulgaria was given free rein to harm its neighbour’s political goal by abusing its rights and the complex procedures applicable to EU enlargement. Meanwhile, North Macedonia is unable to enjoy the regular course of its candidacy to the EU despite its constant efforts, which have been welcomed by most EU institutions and EU member States,” adds the paper.
According to the study, Bulgaria’s tactic damages not only European politics by opening the door to a further sliding of the Western Balkans into the orbit of other great powers, but it also harms the very idea of rule of law at the European level.
“Bulgaria’s conduct seems to be based on a questionable cocktail of political, cultural and legal instrumentalization. There is a likelihood of this situation leaving a lasting adverse impact on the peoples of North Macedonia and the region, if nothing is done to re-establish basic considerations of justice in the highly political process of the EU enlargement,” the study says.
In addition, the German NGO notes that Bulgaria is misusing the EU and international legal rules without any real legal arguments, and yet, without judicial means of dispute resolution these violations are unlikely to generate legal consequences at this stage.
“North Macedonia could or should contemplate raising aspects of this “dispute” before an international court or body, especially because it has a treaty of amity in force with Bulgaria, which is blatantly violated by the latter’s offensive attitude against its neighbour. Yet, such a move is seemingly politically delicate at the moment, since this will most probably accentuate fears that the EU accession process in the case of North Macedonia would get stalled even longer. This is a clear manifestation of the successful blackmailing campaign that Bulgaria is running against its Macedonian neighbour, by taking full advantage of its relative privileged position as an EU member State,” reads the paper among other, as DW reports.
