Petkov: If there is no stability in the Balkans, we have achieved nothing

Speaking of the conflict between the two countries dealing with the historical past, as well as respecting the rights of the Bulgarian minority in Northern Macedonia, Petkov said the two governments are working intensively to find an acceptable solution.

Reaching a solution will allow the removal of the Bulgarian veto for the launch of European membership talks on Northern Macedonia, veto, which was established in November 2020.

“If we don't have peace and stability in the Balkans and if we can't remove borders, if businesses can't work on both sides, if people can't have a general vision that they can do more together, we won't achieve anything”, Petkov said, following the opening of the Bulgarian cultural centre in the town of Monastery.

But, Petkov has denied that at the moment there will be any draft agreements, as Macedonian diplomacy chief Bujar Osmani had stated on Wednesday 13 April, who said that North Macedonia agrees with a document on resolving the dispute and that he expects answers from the Bulgarian side, but without specifying what proposal is being discussed.

Such proposals had prompted Bulgarian Prime Minister Petkov to be threatened by the outgoing coalition parties of the Bulgarian government if he reached any agreement without the consent of all parties.

In this context, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister, Teodora Gencovska, who and Slavi Trifunov's parties, “has such a people”, has declared no optimism about opening negotiations with Northern Macedonia during the chairmanship of the European Union presidency from France.

On Thursday, April 14th, at a closed session in the Bulgarian Assembly, Gencovska has stressed there is no progress on open political issues. The chief of Bulgarian diplomacy has already said there is no time for the North Macedonia Constitution to be opened by the end of June for the inclusion of Bulgarians in it as an official people of Northern Macedonia.

“If we really see it through the end of the French chairmanship with the Council of Europe, I doubt my colleagues from Northern Macedonia will be able to open the Constitution and close this process”, Gencovska has declared.

The northern Macedonia government and Bulgaria's in January had formed working groups with the goal of establishing co-operation in all spheres, despite historical ones, with which they would overcome differences to unblock the process of European integration of Northern Macedonia. / REL