site.btaScholars, Politicians and Diplomats Discuss European Prospects of North Macedonia at Sofia Forum (Wrap-up)

A forum under the auspices of President Rumen Radev brought together researchers, politicians and diplomats to discuss the European prospects of North Macedonia. "I am convinced that the European perspective of the Republic of North Macedonia has no alternative," said the President as he opened the National Conference on the European Perspective for Good-neighbourly Relations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

According to Radev, this is the strategic goal not only of Bulgarian foreign policy, but also of the Bulgarian state and society. “I am convinced that sooner or later the desire of people in the two countries to communicate without barriers will lead to the elimination of artificial divisions,” Radev added. There is a lot of work to be done to make this happen. For the last three decades Bulgaria has done a lot for the development of our relations, the head of State added.

Radev said that the pressure on Bulgaria to greenlight negotiations between the Republic of North Macedonia and the EU is enormous.

"The pressure is huge, unfortunately, especially on the member state, and less so on the candidate country. This pressure is due to lack of understanding of the depth of historical problems," said the head of State. He said pressure was particularly strong last year at two European councils that were ready to address enlargement issues.

The Bulgarian position

In November 2020, Bulgaria vetoed the negotiation framework for North Macedonia's planned accession to the European Union, practically blocking the start of accession talks. Sofia put forward its demands for Skopje in a framework position endorsed by the National Assembly in 2019. Sofia wants its neighbour to give up hate speech against Bulgarians, reconsider what Bulgaria sees as a distorted view on the two countries' common history, and protect the rights of the Bulgarian community in North Macedonia.

More recently, President Radev has insisted consistently for adding Bulgarians in the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia alongside the other peoples (Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Romanies) to ensure their full equality as citizens.

Also, Sofia refuses to recognize the existence of a "Macedonian minority" in Bulgaria. It argues that the Macedonian language is, essentially, a dialect of Bulgarian. Bulgaria has deplored North Macedonia's perceived failure to implement the bilateral Treaty on Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation, signed in 2017.

Radev said at the Sofia forum that the big question facing Bulgarian politics and society is when Bulgaria will agree to start the negotiation process. “I have always said that this should be after North Macedonia’s constitution is changed and the Macedonian Bulgarians there are registered on an equal basis with other parts of the nation,” the President reminded. According to him, this should happen before the start of the negotiations, because there are already many events and processes that have led us to lose confidence. “We have had a Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation for almost five years, but what has happened so far is that nothing has changed politically, only the note to the UN. What is the guarantee that in the next five years something will change in a positive direction?” asked the President.

The head of State said that the change of the constitution and the entry of a word “Bulgarians” along with other parts of the nation means that North Macedonia accepts the European idea and the Copenhagen criteria. If North Macedonia’s parliament and government do not have the political will to demonstrate agreement with the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership in their most important part: human rights and non-discrimination, there could be no progress in the process, said the President.

He added that Bulgaria will open the door to negotiations when there are clear guarantees for a sustainable and irreversible process for the protection of Bulgarian cultural and historical heritage.

President Radev called on the National Assembly to send a letter to the US Congress on draft resolution 741 and to justify the necessary actions to protect the historical truth. "Only with the truth can we resolve all open issues with our counterparts in North Macedonia," the head of State said.

If the said resolution is adopted, September will be declared the month of the Macedonian language, history, and cultural contribution of Macedonians to US development.

Vice President Iliana Iotova said in her address at the forum that "there is one issue that leaves no room for compromise, and it is the rights of Bulgarians in the Republic of North Macedonia."

"Many voices call on us to lift the embargo on the start of EU membership talks, saying that when negotiations with North Macedonia begin, the problems will resolve themselves," Iotova said. According to her, however, this is a wrong view. "My experience shows that if a country enters the EU with its problems, they usually get worse," Iotova said.

Assoc. Prof. Spas Tashev from the Institute for Population and Human Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He presented a study on human rights violations in North Macedonia, tracing their roots in former Yugoslavia and outlining the new trends appearing today. The policy of de-Bulgarization pursued today in North Macedonia is a relic from the time of communist Yugoslavia, and that is confirmed by declassified files of North Macedonian citizens. Information about them began to be collected in the 1960s during the communist Yugoslavia and the same practice continued in the 1990s, after the declaration of Skopje's independence, the professor said. 

Bulgarians in North Macedonia have been subjected to judicial mistreatment. The persecution of people with Bulgarian identity goes beyond the legal framework, the historian said.

Marin Raykov, Bulgaria's Ambassador to the UK, said that Bulgaria is not blackmailing North Macedonia, as some officials in Skopje have recently begun to claim. "There is no reason for us to blackmail our brothers in Skopje, we are fraternal countries, we share the same language traditions, we share a common historical memory", said Raykov. 

Petar Kolev, leader of the Civic Democratic Union party in North Macedonia, said that both the Bulgarians residing in his country and the Bulgarian state institutions have to demonstrate unity and coordination in order to strengthen the European values in North Macedonia. "Otherwise, neither the Bulgarians in North Macedonia, nor Bulgaria will see a change for the better."

In Kolev's opinion, the Bulgarian State's firmer stance in defence of human rights has resulted in slight progress countering fears in North Macedonia, leading to a growing number of people there mustering the courage to openly declare themselves as Bulgarians.

Georgi Crnomarov of the Ivan Mihajlov Cultural Centre in Bitola said that to this day Macedonian Bulgarians are still the victims of institutional antagonism, similarly to the era of Tito's rule in Yugoslavia. "The sad truth is, even today in the Republic of North Macedonia we can only be Bulgarians quietly at home." According to Crnomarov, despite North Macedonia's 30-year history of being an independent state there are no Macedonian Bulgarians working in central or local government. "Renouncing the centuries-old Bulgarian heritage in North Macedonia is absurd, however this is the life that we live."

The forum in Hall 6 of NDK is organized by the Institute for Historical Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Macedonian Scientific Institute, and is held on May 4, marking 119 years since the death of the great Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev.

BTA is a media partner of the forum.