site.btaChairman Hopes Foreign Policy Committee Will Act Sensibly with Regard to North Macedonia

Bulgaria's National Assembly Foreign Policy Committee Chair Boyko Borissov intends to try to persuade the Committee members to act sensibly, not emotionally, on the matter of North Macedonia after it emerged that Albania's EU accession path will be decoupled from North Macedonia's according to a unanimous decision of Ambassadors of EU member states.

Borissov, who leads the GERB party, spoke to journalists in the National Assembly on Thursday, hours before the Foreign Policy Committee would discuss a draft declaration on "the systematic and persistent undermining of the dialogue between the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Bulgaria and provocative and offensive statements about Bulgaria made by the ruling political factors in the Republic of North Macedonia."

Borissov said: "From my experience on the issue of EU enlargement with the Western Balkans, I know how our colleagues in Europe and America work. We need to show patience as our institutions react. We should not appear aggressive, because the tactics of our colleagues in the Republic of North Macedonia is to put the blame on us. We have a Treaty of Good-neighbourliness [with North Macedonia], which is referred to on the EU enlargement agenda, and no one can ignore it. Bulgaria has not departed from good manners, it has just called on someone to resign, which is something very normal. We should live up to the high standard of national conduct rather than echo the rhetoric of a minister."

The reference was to North Macedonia's Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski, who said in a televised interview that Bulgarian politicians were exploiting North Macedonia for political gain. The interview triggered a strong outcry in Bulgaria, prompting Boyko Borissov to demand Nikoloski's resignation and Movement for Rights and Freedoms floor leader Delyan Peevski to insist that Nikoloski should be declared persona non grata.

In his remarks on Thursday, Borissov also said: "I want to assure the Bulgarian people that everything we have done in the European People's Party, the European Council and the European Commission [has been effective enough to] make ourselves heard. This is how European institutions work: no threats, no insults. Albania is moving forward, and our colleagues in the Republic of North Macedonia should reap what they have sown."