[ad_1]
© Associated Press
Celebrating the death of the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in Skopje is as if the mayor of Berlin was thinking of commemorating the death of Adolf Hitler in Berlin. At the same time, what Bulgaria and North Macedonia need at the moment is to focus on the disputes over the negotiating framework for EU membership and perhaps on a document that complements the Neighborhood Treaty.
This is what Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt. The conversation with journalist Sasha Lenarz is dedicated solely to Bulgaria’s decision to effectively block the start of EU accession talks with North Macedonia by failing to agree on a negotiating framework due to insistence on including issues bilateral. The minister also drew attention to the fact that Bulgarians are still called “fascists” in Macedonian textbooks, and asked “would you accept if Germans were still called fascists in textbooks today”.
The latter’s disapproval was again expressed today by the German Minister for European Affairs, Michael Roth, who in the same newspaper, in a comment on the 25th anniversary of the Dayton Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he expressed (but this time without mentioning Bulgaria) his disappointment that the accession of individual countries has become “hostage” to bilateral issues. Social Democrat Roth has been a keynote speaker for Germany’s position in recent months, as Berlin seeks to launch the first intergovernmental conference (the actual start of negotiations with North Macedonia) under the German presidency of the Council of the European Union in December. .
More attention to financial problems
The interview begins with an introduction to a “strange-looking dispute raging in the Balkans”, in which Bulgaria blocked negotiations “for the sake of language, history and identity.”
Zaharieva also reiterated to the German public the repeatedly emphasized position that Bulgarian support for North Macedonia and its EU membership has never been unconditional and that visible results must be shown in the Neighborhood Agreement. He explains that the Macedonian authorities mainly explain “what they will not do” and grant “interviews to all the media ten times a day”, and “emotions must calm down”. The comparison between Tito and Hitler follows an in absentia dispute with the mayor of Skopje, Petre Shilegov, after the city organized an exhibition on the anniversary. At the time, Zaharieva also said that Tito’s praise had no place in the EU.
It says that the joint Bulgarian-Macedonian historical commission should not be “instrumentalized” for political purposes. However, he also spoke about the infrastructure: the problems with the Pan-European Corridor 8, which should connect the Adriatic and the Black Sea through Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. The delays are “enormous” and “not only Bulgaria has noticed this, but also the international institutions that are financing the project”, which lost 130 million euros.
He did not go into details, but spoke again of “administrative barriers created for investors that would create jobs in the region,” a cultural and educational cooperation program proposed by Sofia, which Skopje has yet to comment on.
His words are part of a visible trend in recent weeks to pay more attention to current issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia amid a stalemate in the work of the historic commission and the resistance in Skopje against talks on the nature of the Macedonian language and Macedonian history. It is also noticeable in the proposals of the Macedonian side.
And Zaev became a victim of hatred.
In the next part, however, the interview continues with the language issue and Zaharieva’s insistence that Bulgaria does not question “the right (of Macedonians) to call their language whatever they wish.” But countries do not recognize languages or peoples, only other North Macedonia tries to present Bulgaria as a country that has stopped “in I don’t know in what century”. It returns the conversation to the right of self-determination of Macedonians, who consider themselves citizens of Bulgarian origin who are discriminated against, and to the harassment group. In addition to social media, the threats come from church officials, and Skopje institutions “must respond” to this, “but must not wait” for a response from the EU, but act quickly as a country. applicant from the EU, in any act of discrimination.
“Unfortunately, the idea of building a nation based on hatred against Bulgaria is still a state policy there,” Zaharieva said shortly after saying that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev had also fallen victim to hatred after his attempt to lend a hand. to Bulgaria historically. questions.
The minister rejects the accusations that Bulgaria is fueling the conflict for internal reasons due to the protests and draws attention to the government’s support on the issue: 83.5% that the majority of Bulgarians accept negotiations for North Macedonia only after to resolve bilateral disputes).
