site.btaOsmani: Bulgaria Can’t Set New Conditions, Negotiating Framework Is Closed, Can’t Be Changed by Opposition in Sofia or Skopje

The top diplomat of the Republic of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, said here Thursday that Bulgaria cannot set new conditions for Skopje’s EU accession talks because the negotiating framework is now closed, and it cannot be reopened under pressure by the opposition in his country or in Bulgaria. Osmani was speaking to journalist on the sidelines of the Prespa Forum in Struga where he was asked to comment a German resolution calling for Bulgaria to refrain from setting new conditions for North Macedonia's EU integrations.

The topic that some Bulgarian government tomorrow will put forward new conditions, needs to be closed, said Osmani.

In his words, the action plan on the issue of minorities in one of the three roadmaps in the negotiating framework of North Macedonia is the only one that refers to the rights not only of the Bulgarian but of all communities in the country, and the treaties with Greece and Bulgaria are in the negotiating framework in the part on good neighbourly relations.

We do not expect that we will go with Bulgaria, calculator in hand, to figure out who has done what from the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness. We hope to build relationship of goodwill and understanding," Osmani said.

Regarding a recent assault on the chairman of an association of Bulgarians in Struga, Osmani pointed out that there are two different accounts of the events, of the attacker and of the victim, and warned of the risk of qualifying the case in any way before the prosecution service in the Republic of North Macedonia clarifies what caused the incident. He fears that "tomorrow all incidents may be presented as ethnicity-based in pursuit of certain protection".

Osmani also said that he is sensitive on the topic of hate speech and hate violence, and does not make a difference between Bulgarians and everybody else in this respect. "My threshold of sensitivity in this regard is very low. North Macedonia is becoming a model for inter-ethnic tolerance and we will not allow ethnic hatred, hate speech, ethnic intolerance to become a trend. We will nip it in the bud," Osmani said.

He clarified that in talks with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Maria Gabriel they agreed to meet "in Sofia or in Skopje" in the near future.