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© Associated Press
From right to left: Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev
The Macedonian Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, has indicated that there is indeed a convergence between the positions of his country and those of Bulgaria on the term “Macedonian language”, as mentioned yesterday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ekaterina Zaharieva.
“All the issues that we can resolve today should not be put off until tomorrow,” Zaev said a day before his conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel, as did his colleague Boyko Borissov yesterday. “But today I have a decision, to continue with the bilateral agreement, more precisely that for Bulgaria the Macedonian language is a language according to the constitution, and for us Bulgarian is a language according to the constitution,” Zaev said in an interview with Macedonian TV. Sitel.
This still does not mean a compromise between Sofia and Skopje, at least not announced, after Zaharieva’s long meeting with two ministers in Berlin. However, Zaharieva yesterday pointed to the linguistic dispute as a point where a common language is currently with some success.
Zaev gave his interview on the day of a meeting of ambassadors of the EU member states, in which an agreement must be reached on the negotiating framework.
Bulgaria wants bilateral issues to be included, but other EU countries (including Germany) still disagree. If there is no compromise today, there will be a new attempt to solve the problem before November 10, when the General Affairs Council is established, the deadline given by Bulgaria for a compromise within the German presidency of the EU Council.
The 2017 formula
Bulgaria does not recognize the existence of the Macedonian language and wants other terminology to be used at the official level. “We emphasized that there are two options: use the 2017 formula, which is absolutely sufficient for us, or recognize the evolution and genesis of language.” The approach is “pretty big, but let’s look at the final texts,” Zaharieva said.
“Bilateral agreement” and “2017”. they denote the same thing: the Good Neighbor Treaty, signed by Borissov and Zaev in Skopje. There are no obligations for the Macedonian party related to the use of the phrase “Macedonian language” (however there are in the Bulgarian Framework Position, but they are unilateral requests and not the result of bilateral consent).
At the same time, the agreement found a formula for the signing of Bulgarians and Macedonians, which would not imply recognition of the Macedonian by Sofia. The doc says it is:
“Signed in two originals, each in the official languages of the Contracting Parties: Bulgarian, in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, and Macedonian, in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, both texts being equally authentic” .
Quote from the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborhood and Cooperation
When asked if this meant that the EU documents would say “Macedonian according to the constitution of the Republic of (North) Macedonia”, Zaev denied, saying that the EU already recognizes the language and the word appears in translations of the meetings, which will be part of the conversations. “We haven’t solved the problem yet, we have to solve it.”
Stagnation of economic cooperation
Zaev said he was optimistic about the talks with Bulgaria and reaffirmed the foreign minister’s willingness to emphasize yesterday that Skopje would have no territorial claims even after the name change (although the obligation already appears to be reciprocal in the Neighborhood Agreement).
“The Republic of North Macedonia and North Macedonia are one and the same and refer to the political subject of the state. At the same time, our constitution guarantees that we have no territorial claims, we will announce it,” Zaev said.
At the same time, the Prime Minister acknowledged the stagnation in the construction of the railway route to Bulgaria. Sofia’s criticism of Skopje for blocking accession talks includes economic aspects: in addition to “denying access to Bulgarian investors”, Zaharieva said yesterday that there was a lack of cooperation in the construction of Corridor №8, which crosses the Balkans .
