site.btaPresident Iotova Reaffirms Bulgaria’s Stance on North Macedonia’s EU Accession at Meeting with EC President Costa

Meeting with European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Bulgarian President Iliana Iotova said that there would be no progress in European Union accession talks with North Macedonia until Bulgarians are included in the country’s constitution. She underscored that this position reflects established EU policy rather than a unilateral Bulgarian demand, the President's Press Secretariat reported.

The meeting between Iotova and Costa focused on EU enlargements in the Western Balkans.

The Bulgarian President noted the alarming signals that North Macedonia's power holders are trying to find a lobby among EU countries to circumvent the first cluster of accession negotiations, at the basis of which are human rights. "There is no way Bulgaria would agree to such a change. I hope that by the next EU-Western Balkans Summit in June, a solution will be find to the matter of North Macedonia, if the country still wants to join the Union," the Bulgarian head of State noted.  

Under what is known as the 2022 European consensus, EU Member States agreed to allow the start of North Macedonia’s EU accession talks on certain conditions, including Skopje implementing changes in its Constitution and including in it the Bulgarian minority in the country. The consensus was seen as a compromise to advance EU enlargement in the Western Balkans, while safeguarding the rights of national minorities.