site.btaPresident Radev Meets with Germany's Special Representative for Western Balkans

President Rumen Radev Tuesday conferred with German Federal Government special representative for the Western Balkan countries Manuel Sarrazin here on Tuesday, the head of State's press secretariat reported. At the meeting, Radev said that the EU enlargement process should be built on the affirmation of democracy's values in the candidate countries in order to be sustainable and irreversible.

The EU is a transformation force for the Western Balkans and should be supporting much more actively the candidate countries in the implementation of the Copenhagen membership criteria, Radev said further.

He expressed the hope that the Republic of North Macedonia will as soon as possible proceed to the implementation of its agreements with the EU, including the inclusion of Bulgarians in its Constitution, thus opening the door to the start of full membership negotiations. Such a step would be a position sign for the European perspective of the entire Western Balkans region, Radev noted.

The head of State expressed Bulgaria's readiness for the subsequent development of transport, energy and digital connectivity with the Republic of North Macedonia as a real factor in promoting economic and investment exchange, tourism and free communication between the two countries' people. The President also expressed his expectation for the effective engagement of the institutions in North Macedonia in changing the attitude towards the Bulgarian community in the country, the effective eradication of hate speech against Bulgaria, and the real counteraction to hate crimes against the local Bulgarians.