Bulgaria’s caretaker Prime Minister Svetlan Stoev said Monday the EU accession process of the Republic of North Macedonia is not only a wish of the Union but Skopje needs to show actions in order to convince European partners and member-state Bulgaria they are willing to bilaterally solve existing problems that prevent Sofia from green-lighting the accession negotiations.
“The Bulgarian side is working in two directions – bilateral dialogue and ensuring guarantees from EU member-states during the accession negotiations that agreements signed by the Republic of North Macedonia, including those with Bulgaria, would be implemented,” Stoev told reporters.
He added that the bilateral path is the short one, and the long one is “when you have to go through all member-states in order to agree on the incorporation of elements in the negotiating framework that satisfy Bulgaria”.
“We have set very clear conditions that must be met. Once we see this, the environment for further dialogue will be entirely different. Unfortunately, what we are seeing now, the hate speech promoted by certain political forces and youth movements, fails to take this direction…I would like to see results during the Slovenian EU Presidency,” noted Stoev.
He expects Skopje to undertake activities related to the implementation of the clauses signed back in 2017.
“We cannot come to an understanding for some of them for four years now, because they are not implemented. This raises the question of the sincerity of our neighbors regarding the fulfillment of their obligations towards Bulgaria,” said Stoev.
