site.btaNorth Macedonia's PM Mickoski Says No Meeting Scheduled with Bulgarian President Radev in Budapest, but He Would Talk with Anyone to Achieve EU Membership

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that a meeting with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev was not scheduled during the European Political Community Summit in Budapest on Thursday, but he was ready to talk with anyone on an agreement which will help Skopje achieve EU membership.

Answering a reporter's question, Mickoski said "the VMRO-DPMNE government would not make mistakes" like the ones he claimed the government of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) had made.

"Unfortunately, the political criminals who had taken over the institutions in the last seven years sold out the country and made mistakes while buying shops and shopping centres in the centre of the capital. We will not make such mistakes when we come to the (negotiating) table; when we negotiate, we will do so until the final decision, not just on one step, because we do not want you, the citizens, to be held hostage," Mickoski said.

The media in the Republic of North Macedonia wrote about a possible meeting between Prime Minister Mickoski and Bulgarian President Radev during the Budapest summit after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during a visit to Ohrid that he was ready to mediate talks between North Macedonia and Bulgaria. 

Mickoski believes this is the way to deal with the inclusion of Bulgarians in the country's constitution as a condition for the opening of Skopje's real negotiations with the EU. Failure to meet this condition was the reason why North Macedonia was decoupled from Albania on its EU accession path. 

Commenting on Orban's mediation proposal, President Radev said on October 13 that the negotiations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia were concluded in July 2022 when the two countries signed the bilateral protocol to the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation.

"If we are talking about dialogue, it should be conducted mainly between North Macedonia and the European Commission on the basis of the negotiating framework for North Macedonia, adopted unanimously by all Member States, as well as by the government of the Republic of North Macedonia. And it should be dialogue on the conditions that North Macedonia must fulfil in order to start EU membership negotiations," Radev said.