The President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev During his stay in Brussels, he told the European electronic edition Euroactiv that the Republic of Northern Macedonia must change its Constitution. According to Radev, this would be a step towards resolving the dispute between Sofia and Skopje, writes BGNES.
According to Radev, it is considered that Bulgaria and the Republic of Northern Macedonia are in the process of renegotiating the Friendship and Good Neighbor Agreement, but that is not the case.
– We are in the process of looking for a way to better implement this agreement. Agreements should be respected. This is the main precondition for being a member of the EU. EU agreements must be respected in the same way, Radev said.
According to him, Bulgaria’s biggest concern is that the Republic of Northern Macedonia does not apply the basic principles and values of the EU, such as human rights and non-discrimination.
– Four years ago we believed that the agreement would solve the problems in bilateral relations, in the same way as the Prespa Agreement did, but today there is a lag in all points. “Hate speech against Bulgaria is growing, there is no political will to remove offensive texts in textbooks, there is no political will to stop the falsification and destruction of Bulgarian cultural and historical heritage in this part of the world,” Radev said.
The discriminatory treatment of Macedonian Bulgarians has been going on for decades. And that, he says, should stop. According to him, today more than 120.000 Macedonian citizens have Bulgarian citizenship and they, Radev points out, are not only Bulgarian citizens, but also EU citizens, which means a lot when it comes to human rights.
-Macedonian Bulgarians must be treated equally with all other groups of people mentioned in their Constitution. These are principles, not negotiations. “We want to see irreversible and sustainable results, legally binding,” the Bulgarian president said.
It took the Republic of Northern Macedonia six months to implement the Prespa Agreement with Greece, and they even changed the name of their country, says Radev and rhetorically asks why it is so difficult to add a single word – “Bulgarians” in the Constitution of Republic of Northern Macedonia.
Source: Sloboden Pecat
