site.btaBulgarian President Radev Reconfirms Sofia's Reluctance to Greenlight Skopje's EU Accession without Legal Guarantees that Moot Points Will Be Addressed

Brdo pri Kranju, October 6 (BTA) - Ahead of an EU-Western Balkans Summit held here on Wednesday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev reconfirmed his country's reluctance to greenlight Skopje's EU accession negotiations unless North Macedonia honours its commitments to address the moot points in bilateral relations.

Radev said that the Western Balkans' EU entry is a key priority of Bulgarian foreign policy and that his country consistently supports this project based on the principles of own progress in reforms and meeting the accession criteria, and of goodneighbourly relations.

The head of State stressed the need to ensure "clear legal guarantees that Skopje will fulfill its obligations [under the 2017 Goodneighbourliness Treaty with Bulgaria] before Sofia agrees to support the start of EU accession talks with the Republic of North Macedonia".

In his remarks, the President emphasized the rights of North Macedonia citizens who identify as Bulgarians and said that 120,000 residents of North Macedonia hold Bulgarian passports.

He said that the "Bulgarian cultural and historic heritage in North Macedonia is a sensitive issue for the Bulgarian people" and slammed what he called "the supplanting of this heritage". Radev cited a recent example of a monument in southern North Macedonia, whose original inscription in standard Bulgarian had been replaced, entire passages of the original text had been removed and some of the rebels' names on it had been changed.

"Bulgaria can't give a green light to North Macedonia's EU accession for as long as it continues the systematic destruction of the Bulgarian historical heritage. Our positions are clear: while this process [of destroying the heritage] continues and fundamental rights are suppressed, we can't say 'Yes' to the project [of Skopje's EU accession]," said the Bulgarian head of State. He was adamant that "this is not a veto or blocking the process" of Skopje's accession. "But the European principles must be respected, hate speech eradicated, the distorted image of Bulgaria purged from text books, museums, monuments, public rhetoric and the state policy - and then our people will say 'Yes'," Radev said.

He called on North Macedonia's President Stevo Pendarovski and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to show a will for addressing the problems in bilateral relations. "More than three years after the entry into force of the Goodneighbourliness Treaty, the Macedonian side has not yet taken tangible action," Radev added.

Taking a question by BTA, he said that Bulgaria is working to better explain its positions to the European partners.

The Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported that a bilateral protocol is in the pipeline and is expected to be finalized in November. The document is being drafted by Bulgaria, North Macedonia, the European Commission, France and Germany and is designed to provide legally binding guarantees for the implementation of the Goodneighbourliness Treaty.

The protocol will reportedly consist of six points, including recognition of people who identify themselves as Bulgarians on an equal footing with the other nationalities in the Constitution of North Macedonia and cessation of their oppression, an end to the distortion of historical facts and a change to the school curriculum. Bulgaria insists that such legal guarantees be handled by the Council of the EU rather than as part of the Stabilization and Association Process, which Bulgaria cannot veto, according to the BNT report.

Before the Summit, President Radev conferred with EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Verhelyi, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa and Zoran Zaev, and had another session with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Zaev. No statements for the media were made after the meetings.

BTA special correspondent Nikolai Stanoev contributed to this story.