Bulgaria vetoed the EU negotiating framework with North Macedonia at Tuesday’s video-conference of European foreign ministers. However, Germany’s EU presidency and the European Commission said they’re not giving up on a solution by year-end. According to the Government, Bulgaria’s decision is not in the spirit of goodneighborly relations and the Friendship Treaty, but talks continue until a win-win solution is reached in the interest of the country’s European future.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva after Tuesday’s EU ministerial meeting said Bulgaria at this stage cannot support the negotiating framework with North Macedonia, because the proposed draft does not reflect the Bulgarian demands and cannot be supported in the current form.
Bulgaria insists on the incorporation of three conditions in the negotiating framework: adherence to the 1999 formulation on the language, reaffirmed by the Friendship Treaty; establishing a plan for implementation of the Treaty; and a clear and precise text over the absence of aspirations regarding the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria.
“These conditions have still not been incorporated in the draft-negotiating framework,” Zakharieva pointed out.
According to her, more efforts should be invested in the talks, because “the point of preparing for membership is to make the Union stronger.” Bulgaria can only approve the negotiating framework with Albania for the time being, she added, because “the country has met most of the conditions set in March.”
German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth, who chaired Tuesday’s video-conference of European foreign ministers, said the EU is not giving up on the efforts to overcome the dispute between Skopje and Sofia and adoption of the negotiating framework by the end of 2020, MIA reported from Brussels.
“Last week, the presidency attempted to bring positions closer but we did not manage to convince them on agreeing with the negotiating framework. In the coming days or weeks we will surely try to send this important signal to the Western Balkans. This will depend on the will of both sides to come to an agreement, it is not entirely up to us,” said Roth.
He expressed satisfaction that Bulgaria and North Macedonia are continuing to talk on the matter. Germany as presidency holder, he added, finds it important to be of assistance in the search for a reasonable solution.
“We want to clear the road as much as possible for the first intergovernmental conference,” underlined Roth.
European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič also reaffirmed that the EU would continue to work on a solution by the end of the year.
“We feel that we are in the final stage towards an agreement on the two negotiating frameworks and putting accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia firmly on track. Efforts need to be redoubled so that issues raised by Bulgaria in relation to North Macedonia can be resolved and agreement on the negotiating frameworks can be found. We want the intergovernmental conference to be held as soon as possible,” said Šefčovič.
According to North Macedonia’s Government, Sofia’s decision to block is a failure of the EU enlargement policy, a bad message for the entire region and a defeat for the fundamental European values and principles.
“Bulgaria’s refraining to approve the negotiating framework is not in the spirit of goodneighborly relations. This position of the Bulgarian Government violates Article 2 of of the 2017 Friendship Treaty. Our position is clear – we believe that European integration should not be held hostage to bilateral issues,” the Government said in a statement after Tuesday’s meeting of the EU foreign ministers.
Extending gratitude to the German EU Presidency for its enhanced efforts and the personal engagement of Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Government said talks will continue intensively “in the interest of our European future, considering that a solution is possible only if both sides emerge as winners, i.e. by reaching a win-win situation.”
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told TV21 late Tuesday that Bulgaria’s refusal to approve the negotiating framework for North Macedonia is the EU’s greatest defeat.
He said he’d been taking Bulgaria’s veto very hard, adding he was convinced that it was not what the Bulgarian people and PM Boyko Borissov wanted.“I think these policies are implemented ahead of elections in the country, but let’s give another chance because there are still options,” Zaev said.
The two countries, Zaev noted, continue seeking solutions with us sticking to the principles that are always important to reach and agreement – them taking care of us and our positions and us taking care of them and their positions and to make it happen in the spirit of friendship.
PM Zaev reiterated that a solution could be ultimately found by the end of December during Germany’s EU presidency.
According to Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani an opportunity was missed to approve the negotiating framework, but the next one is the General Affairs Council meeting in December. “We cannot give up, there is no other alternative. Discussions will continue in order to find a way to overcome these differences,” Osmani said.
He added that there is still room for discussions.
“Bulgaria is aware of the damage it did today, both for its own position, in bilateral relations, and for EU’s credibility. This credibility has been built for decades and it cannot be broken that easy. I believe this situation will make all of us reflect on the stake at hand and the consequences,” said Osmani.
Slovenian Member of European Parliament (MEP) Tanja Fajon told MIA on Tuesday that EU member-states should no longer delay the opening of the accession negotiations with North Macedonia and urged them to take responsibility.
“We all share our responsibility and North Macedonia did its work. Any further delay will harm mostly its citizens especially during these difficult times during pandemic when the economic and social development is very much needed for the country. But first and utmost – the mutual confidence and trust. This is what is at stake,” Fajon noted.
The Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament also urged Bulgaria to stop blocking North Macedonia’s accession bid.
“The EU accession process shouldn’t be used by Member States as leverage to obtain concessions from its neighbours or to push for a populist and nationalist agenda for domestic political reasons,” Renew Europe said in a press release.
Former EU ambassador in Skopje Erwan Fouéré said the tactic of the Bulgarian government toward North Macedonia is quite irrational and counterproductive and could have serious consequences affecting not only the relations of the two countries, but also the whole region and the EU enlargement policy.
“Bulgaria has been using its EU membership to impose its interpretation of history all the while insisting that its version has to be accepted by the others before starting accession talks. It’s quite counterproductive because it is underestimating the EU’s enlargement policy, going totally against the principles on which European integration is based, which had been accepted by Bulgaria when it joined the EU in 2007,” Fouéré said in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.
The Brussels-based online newspaper EUobserver published an article Tuesday on the Bulgarian veto over the official start of EU talks with North Macedonia, saying that Bulgaria brings ‘historical baggage’ to the EU table.
“It was meant to be a technicality, but it is turning into a new fiasco on EU enlargement and the Western Balkans, dragging in Hitler, Stalin, and Tito. Tuesday’s talks will see a new Bulgarian veto, based on what one senior EU diplomat called “all this historical baggage stuff”,” reads EUobserver .
“The demands [of Bulgaria] from the past year go beyond the scope of the [2017] agreement, they affect identity issues, which is not acceptable for us,” President Stevo Pendarovski has told EUobserver. According to him, the 2017 agreement was meant to “separate historical from political issues.” “This allows for differences regarding history to be a subject for academic discussion, not a dialogue between countries,” Pendarovski told the newspaper.
According to Ivaylo Ditchev, professor of cultural anthropology at the Sofia University in Bulgaria, Sofia’s absurd veto to North Macedonia on the path towards the EU speaks about their own complexes.
“We’re probably insecure about our identity, so we want to rub it off on the Macedonians to show how great we are. Some EU countries that oppose the enlargement will gladly hide behind our veto. The Russians are happy too, they’ll be able to divide and rule, and so are the Chinese, who’ll be able to freely invest, the Serbs who will one day integrate North Macedonia instead of us. Why are we looking for an opportunity to make this fatal mistake and block North Macedonia, and Albania too by the way, on the path towards the EU,” Ditchev says, adding that nations succeed when they look forward, and not back at what they have irreversibly lost.
Opposition parties in the country said the responsibility for the failure to adopt the EU negotiating framework and for Bulgaria’s veto lies with the Macedonian diplomacy. VMRO-DPMNE MP Antonio Miloshoski called for the resignation of Deputy PM for European Affairs and former foreign minister Nikola Dimitrov, adding that otherwise a motion of no confidence will be raised against him in Parliament.
