Bulgaria’s President with a Letter to European Leaders about the EU membership of North Ma
Source: Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency)
In a letter to European leaders and institutions, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev called for North Macedonia‘s accession to the EU to be based on the fulfillment of the membership criteria, and not on lobbyist politics. The EU member states can, with joint efforts, support the integration processes of North Macedonia, which focus on the observance of human rights and the principles of good neighborliness. This is the position of the head of state in a letter to European leaders and institutions. President Rumen Radev emphasized that he has always expressed and defended Bulgaria’s principled position of consistently supporting the European integration of North Macedonia – “a country close to us, with which we share a common history, traditions, and cultural heritage“. At the same time, the Bulgarian state has always emphasized the main principles on which the EU enlargement process is based – “those of own merits and the fulfillment of membership criteria through comprehensive socio-political reforms“. Therefore, given the complex historical burden of our region, according to the president, the issue of observing the principles of good neighborliness and human rights has a special focus in this process.
The head of state emphasizes that the events we are observing today show a tangible retreat from the established path. The finding of a compromise acceptable to both countries, reached by the European Council in July this year, has not yet led to a solution to the problems.
“Instead of working towards the fulfillment of the conditions, Skopje is betting again on active lobbying to cover up the lack of political will to meet the membership criteria. The attacks and the language of hatred against Bulgaria are intensifying, ‘black lists are being introduced to ban Bulgarian citizens from entering the country, the rights of the Bulgarian community are being trampled on – cases of physical violence, administrative and judicial harassment against people with a Bulgarian self-consciousness are becoming more frequent, of arson and shootings against their cultural clubs, of constant threats to their jobs just because they are Bulgarians. This atmosphere greatly hinders the development of trade, economic and cultural ties between the two countries,” the President said in the letter.
The President singles out the resolution of the German Bundestag as an example of imposing the main narrative of the political circles and media in North Macedonia on relations with Bulgaria, in which the thesis that “Bulgaria does not accept the modern identity of North Macedonia” dominates.
“However, it is a fact that Bulgaria has never contested the right of the citizens of North Macedonia to define their modern identity and to call their official language as they wish. Bulgaria only reacts to the attempts to build the country’s identity on an anti-Bulgarian basis and by appropriating Bulgarian history, similar to Skopje’s obsession with the ancient period until the signing of the treaty with Greece in 2018,” Rumen Radev points out.
At the same time, the resolution calls on Bulgaria not to set additional conditions for the accession of North Macedonia to the EU. In this regard, the head of state emphasizes that the inclusion of Bulgarians in the country’s constitution is only a preliminary condition for starting membership negotiations. However, it does not exhaust the conditions that North Macedonia should fulfill.
In this regard, the letter notes that in the July 2022 Enlargement Conclusions, the European Council recalled the importance of achieving tangible results and the conscientious implementation of the bilateral agreements with Greece and Bulgaria, incl. of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation with Bulgaria from 2017, as well as the protocols of the joint meetings of the intergovernmental commission under Art. 12 of this contract. In the two protocols signed so far, important specific commitments have been laid down, such as North Macedonia‘s refusal to use the language of hatred towards Bulgaria, changing the content of textbooks in the general education system, ending discrimination against citizens who identify themselves as Bulgarians, declassifying the archives of Yugoslav secrets services related to the pogroms against the Bulgarian population in North Macedonia. Unfortunately, nothing has been done by Skopje on these issues so far.
The case of the European Parliament’s prepared report on the EC’s report on North Macedonia for 2022 is also indicative. In his interview on May 23, North Macedonia‘s foreign minister publicly stated that he had contacts with MEPs from the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Policy and had influenced the draft text of the report, directly participating in the process of drafting the draft with written proposals. “Never before has a candidate country for membership been allowed to have such influence on the work of the European institutions. Another example of Skopje’s lobbying policy is the announcement by the country’s foreign minister that other member states intend to come up with declarations similar to the resolution of the German Bundestag“, emphasized the head of state Rumen Radev.
Following such an approach is not in favor of the European perspective of North Macedonia, is the position of the president. In his letter, the Bulgarian head of state expresses confidence that Bulgaria and the other EU member states can, with joint efforts, support the integration processes of the Republic of North Macedonia, which focus on achieving the membership criteria, with a particular emphasis on human rights and principles of good neighborliness.
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