site.btaSofia Laments Skopje's Intransigence in Bilateral Disputes

November 18 (BTA) - Bulgaria has always demonstrated consistency, predictability, transparency and constructiveness, but despite all its acts of goodneighbourliness, Skopje never changed the essence of its policy towards Bulgaria, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said on Wednesday. She was given a hearing at the National Assembly in Sofia on the Bulgarian position concerning the negotiating framework for North Macedonia's expected accession to the European Union.

Zaharieva said: "In effect, Skopje has continued its policy of maintaining unfounded claims about minority rights, history and language, among other matters. Unless we receive legal guarantees both from Skopje and in the context of the negotiating process with the EU that this policy will change, we cannot give the green light to the first [EU-North Macedonia] intergovernmental conference and to the start of membership negotiations."

She went on to note: "We have cited examples of artificial administrative barriers raised against Bulgarian investors. The development of East-West connectivity has been delayed; Skopje has not proposed any infrastructure projects in this field for the new period of the pre-accession programmes. Hysteria has been whipped up in their media, fuelled by open hate speech with regard to Bulgaria, and anyone who expresses a dissenting opinion is branded a traitor."

Skopje has discredited and distorted the Bulgarian view, making it seem like a convenient instrument of nationalism and political partisanship, the Foreign Minister said. "The Bulgarian stance has been presented manipulatively as a denial of the right of the citizens of North Macedonia to determine their identity and a denial of their right to have a language - which is not true." With its refusal to end the anti-Bulgarian propaganda, Skopje is violating a provision in its Treaty of Friendship, Goodneighbourliness and Cooperation with Sofia, Zaharieva said.

"We are leaving the door open to communication and are ready to hold bilateral negotiations," she observed. "We will keep up our well-intentioned approach. But North Macedonia's current conduct makes it incumbent on us to temporarily suspend our support and our consent for the first intergovernmental conference to take place, until we receive a clear guarantee in a legally binding document."

The National Assembly also heard out Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Krassimir Karakachanov. He said: "My impression is that during the talks our colleagues from Skopje have behaved as if Bulgaria is the candidate country, not North Macedonia."

Karakachanov urged the citizens of North Macedonia to ask their government why it followed up a policy which thwarted the start of the EU membership negotiations. He said: "Skopje probably expected that someone in the EU would pressure Bulgaria into retreating. The kind of pressure that they imagine has never been exerted on Bulgaria. We have been asked what kind of help we could use. That is what partners do."

According to Karakachanov, Bulgaria was willing to cooperate until the last moment, because it has responsibilities as a factor for stability, peace and order in the Balkans. "We back them, and they stab us in the back," he commented. He recalled that Bulgaria was the first country to recognize Macedonia's independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. "What did we get in return? Insincerity and an openly anti-Bulgarian policy."

Karakachanov accused the diplomats of North Macedonia of trying to create a negative image of Bulgaria in Europe and NATO while at the same time using international institutions to push for the recognition of a "Macedonian minority" in Bulgaria.

Karakachanov and Zaharieva took questions from MPs. After the hearings, the parliamentary groups of GERB, BSP for Bulgaria, the United Patriots and Volya supported the government's position on the EU's negotiating framework for North Macedonia. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms stayed out of the discussion and did not raise any questions during the hearings.

Plamen Manoushev (GERB) commented that efforts have been made to normalize Bulgaria's relations with North Macedonia, but the results are not good enough. "Regretfully, hate speech remains dominant in the media of the Republic of North Macedonia," Manoushev deplored.

National Assembly Deputy Chair Kristian Vigenin (BSP for Bulgaria) said his parliamentary group believes that, under the circumstances, the Bulgarian government's decision to delay the EU-North Macedonia intergovernmental conference and the start of the membership negotiations is correct. He noted, however, that the decision is a problem for both countries.

United Patriots Secretary Yulian Angelov stated: "We extend our complete and all-out support for the Bulgarian government's position that the Bulgarian interests should be defended till the end. We are not happy that Bulgaria has imposed a veto on the Republic of North Macedonia, because we believe that the people who live there are our brothers and sisters. But it is about time that the view that the Bulgarians are the worst thing in the world is dispelled in North Macedonia."

Similarly, Slavi Netsov (Volya) expressed his group's support for the government and the negotiating team. He noted that the attitude of many people in North Macedonia is different from that of the power-holders and they yearn for goodneighbourly relations with Bulgaria. RY/VE
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