site.btaBulgarian President to EU Leaders: Bulgaria Will Not Accept Replacement of Hard-Won Compromise on North Macedonia

In a letter to the heads of EU institutions and EU Members States on Tuesday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev says that Bulgaria will not accept a replacement of the hard-won European compromise. The rights of the Bulgarians in the Republic of North Macedonia cannot be subject to political bargaining, he added on the occasion of the draft report on that country's progress toward EU accession, adopted by the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday.

"Strengthening the credibility of European institutions, especially in times of crises, is our common duty, and I count on your assistance in this," Radev adds in the letter.

The President recalls that from the very beginning, the draft report caused a wave of indignation and criticism in Bulgaria against the actions and approaches in its preparation. The revelations raise a number of questions about the integrity and transparency of the work of certain MEPs and administrative officials.

"I welcome the European Parliament's decision to reject claims of 'centuries-old Macedonian identity' and to prevent further attempts to push the ethnocentric nationalist narrative of the government in Skopje," Radev says further.

In Radev's words, Bulgaria remains committed to all elements of the 2022 European consensus, the implementation of which is the only option for European integration of North Macedonia. "Previous attempts to motivate the government in Skopje by making concessions from this consensus have not led to the desired result. On the contrary, the government in Skopje is demonstrating more and more openly that it will not comply with this hard-earned compromise, accepted by the Republic of North Macedonia as well, which means that they have no intention of actually implementing the European integration of the country," the letter reads.

The 2022 European consensus is a reference to a proposal by the outgoing French EU Presidency in 2022, aimed at overcoming a series of tensions between Sofia and Skopje over language, history, and the rights of ethnic Bulgarians in North Macedonia. Without making a specific mention of a "Bulgarian minority", the proposal obliged North Macedonia's government to protect the rights of all "minorities and communities" by preventing hate speech and discrimination and to respect the 2017 Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria. Once its Parliament endorsed the deal, Bulgaria lifted its veto blocking EU-North Macedonia talks on European Union membership.