site.btaNorth Macedonia's PM Mickoski Comments on EU Council President's Offer to Mediate between Skopje and Sofia

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said in an interview that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's plan is for Hungary, who holds the EU Council Presidency, to organize a bilateral meeting in Budapest between the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria "to see if positions can be approximated" so that North Macedonia can start negotiations with the EU.

Mickoski pointed out that North Macedonia has a great friend in the person of Orban who protects North Macedonia's national interests.

"Let the European Union be the arbiter, the President of the EU invited us to Budapest to solve all issues in advance, not in stages, so that there are no more obstacles and the process (of European integration of North Macedonia)," he said. 

Mickoski argued that the negotiation framework, which states that Bulgarians in the country must be included in the Constitution as a condition for the start of North Macedonia's negotiations with the EU, is not a treaty, and that the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness and Cooperation with Bulgaria does not state that the Constitution must be changed.

In the interview, Mickoski said that the EU representatives he spoke with in Brussels told him that they supported the negotiating framework because former President of the Republic of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski and former Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski had convinced them that they would provide the necessary majority in order to include the Bulgarians in the country's Constitution.

"If anyone expects this government or me to accept something that I was against in principle and had arguments against, not out of spite, they are wrong or they don't know me," he said.

Mickoski said he was still  waiting for someone to tell him a reason why Bulgarians in North Macedonia should be included in the constitution.

"The Bulgarian minority here has all possible rights. If any politician claims that they are violated, there must be evidence. And we can read the evidence in the decisions of the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg," he pointed out, noting that there are 14 verdicts for violated rights of the North Macedonian community in Bulgaria and none regarding the Bulgarian community in North Macedonia. 

Mickoski added that a day will come when the problems with Bulgaria will be resolved, and until then North Macedonia will work to increase its friends in the EU.