site.btaUPDATED North Macedonia's Leadership Doing Everything Possible to Delay EU Membership, PM Radev Says

The political leadership of North Macedonia is doing everything possible to delay its country's accession to the European Union, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Thursday in response to a journalist's question.

Radev was speaking at the opening of a national meeting of local and central executive authorities at the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in Sofia.

Commenting on the arson attack on two diplomatic vehicles outside the Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje, Radev said there could be no bilateral meeting between him and North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski because the issue was not a bilateral one.

"Mickoski has a problem with the EU," Radev said.

He added that North Macedonia must now convince the EU that it respects human rights and can guarantee the security of all diplomatic missions on its territory.

"They are obviously failing to do so," Radev said.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister expressed regret that North Macedonia's political leadership was persistently acting against the interests of its own citizens, namely their aspiration for faster European integration.

"The policy at the highest level of the state of fostering hate speech, showing a lack of tolerance, distorting history and turning history into an instrument of international relations will lead nowhere good," Radev said.

He recalled that Bulgaria had succeeded in securing EU-wide support for the inclusion of Bulgarians in North Macedonia's Constitution as a means of protecting their fundamental rights.

Asked about calls to suspend EU funding for North Macedonia, Radev said Bulgaria would do everything required to defend its national interest.

He recalled that when he represented Bulgaria in the Council of the EU several years ago, he had been "alone against everyone".

"One after another, the leaders of all other Member States urged me to allow North Macedonia to begin accession negotiations immediately," Radev said.

He added that he had managed to convince European leaders to reconsider their position and recognize that the core issue was respect for human rights, resulting in the inclusion of constitutional guarantees for Bulgarians in the negotiating framework, as well as the implementation of commitments, particularly those contained in the second protocol under the bilateral agreement between Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

Radev said that at his first meeting in Montenegro he had observed a significant shift in the positions of some European leaders and was once again making every effort to convince them how Europe should act as a union defending the interests of all EU citizens.

According to him, a number of European leaders have become less firm in their positions, whereas the EU had previously maintained a united stance on the issue.

"Someone has not finished their job," Radev said.

"We now have to make efforts again to convince leaders that the consensus reached in July 2022 must be respected," he added.

According to the Bulgarian Prime Minister, the larger problem is that the country's political leadership not only fails to punish those responsible for such attacks, but that the perpetrators are even encouraged and used in election campaigns.

Radev stressed that until clear principles of the rule of law are established and those responsible for such acts face consequences, "we have nothing more to discuss with the Prime Minister of North Macedonia."