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© Government Information Press Service
A moment from yesterday’s conversations at the Boyana residence.
Bulgaria has asked North Macedonia to sign an annex or protocol in which Sofia receives guarantees that Skopje will abide by the good-neighborly agreement signed in 2017 and will not try to circumvent it. Some of the topics in it should be about the problems of language, identity and history, the rehabilitation of the repressed. This was commented to Nova TV by Deputy Prime Minister and IMRO leader Krassimir Karakachanov.
Yesterday, Karakachanov participated in talks with a Macedonian government delegation that arrived in Sofia for the Berlin Summit, co-chaired by the two prime ministers, Boyko Borissov and Zoran Zaev. And although the issue of North Macedonia’s integration is not related to the agenda of the multilateral meeting, it was clear from Karakachanov’s words that the talks on this issue began at 10 am and ended at 5 pm.
Both sides have mutual claims of non-compliance with the deal, and Bulgaria has warned that it will block North Macedonia’s talks with the EU this year if a number of conditions are not met.
The IMRO leader assured Nova TV that the positions of both the Prime Minister and GERB leader, Boyko Borissov, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva, defended before Zaev and the delegation from North Macedonia, fully coincided with the position of the United Patriots coalition partner.
Yesterday we clearly said that Bulgaria continues to hold the position that the only normal prospect for the Western Balkans and North Macedonia is EU membership. but this will not happen as they imagine it in North Macedonia. (…) They cannot wait for someone bigger, stronger, to pressure us, to explain to us that Macedonia, as the center of the universe, must enter the EU. And we explained that Bulgaria has national dignity and will maintain the North Macedonian identity not at the expense of the Bulgarian identity, said Karakachanov.
I think they understood that Bulgaria is not joking and that there is no one to pressure us, said the deputy prime minister, explaining similar expectations to his colleagues in Skopje with less international experience. He added that there are still a few days left, but Bulgaria will continue to help North Macedonia’s European integration even if the negotiating framework is not adopted.
