site.btaUPDATED PM Mickoski: Bulgarian Politicians Want to Bring Topic of North Macedonia into Their Election Campaign

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Saturday that Bulgarian politicians want to bring the topic of North Macedonia and the "Macedonian question" into their election campaign. He was commenting on Friday's position of by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry that Skopje's European integration process is based on the countries' own merits and rules out mediation between the EU and a candidate country. The only guarantee of success is to meet the established criteria and conditions.

"I have said many times that we will not be naive and fall into such traps. We have our interest and our goal and we intend to walk fast towards our interest and our goal. As far as negotiations with our eastern neighbour [Bulgaria] are concerned, we are ready when they want, and based on a platform and a plan, to sit down to talk, find a solution and respect international standards," Mickoski said, adding that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's proposal for Budapest  to mediate between Sofia and Skopje to iron out their differences which are keeping North Macedonia from starting EU accession negotiations, was made on behalf of the EU Presidency. "Now we need to see who is sending what signals from Bulgaria - some are sending one signal, others are sending another. Our signal is clear - we want a real solution and we do not accept blackmail and ultimatums," Mickoski said in response to a journalist's question after he launched the reconstruction of the Deve Bair border checkpoint with Bulgaria. 

The ceremony for the start of the reconstruction was streamed on the government's website.

The project for the upgrade and reconstruction of Deve Bair with funds provided through the World Bank was announced in April 2021. It will be implemented in two phases, the first of which includes the construction of a new modern administrative facility for the customs and a complete reconstruction of the existing administrative building of the checkpoint itself. The reconstruction is expected to speed up the import, export and transit procedures. 

According to data presented at the start of the reconstruction on Saturday, a total of 88,213 trucks have passed through the Deve Bair crossing, up by 11% from the same period of 2023 and generating  MKD 1.4 billion, by MKD 110 million more than a year earlier.