The French proposal to unblock the EU integration of North Macedonia is the best one yet for Bulgaria, but Bulgarian politicians shouldn’t rush into declaring any historic victories as the proposal doesn’t sufficiently protect Bulgarian interests, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said Wednesday in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, transmits news agency MIA.
According to MIA’s Sofia correspondent, Radev highlighted how successful Bulgaria was in opposing two EU enlargement councils with its “clear position and clear arguments.”
The Bulgarian president said the country’s EU partners agreed that “defending civil rights and tackling discrimination cannot be a bilateral issue only between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia but needs to be set at the EU level.”
Urging Bulgarian politicians not to make any premature claims of a “historic victory,” he said changing North Macedonia’s Constitution was not the last but the first step toward the country’s EU integration. “We should make it clear this process is based on two key documents,” Radev stressed.
“The first is the negotiating framework, which is the EU’s responsibility.
“The second is the bilateral protocol, which is our commitment and an integral part of the negotiating framework,” he said, adding that the current proposal for a bilateral protocol “does not provide sufficient guarantees that Bulgaria’s interests would be protected.”
