site.btaMacedonian Church: Accession Negotiating Framework Should Leave Out History, Good-Neighbourliness Treaty

Meeting on Thursday, the Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid (MOC-AO) concluded that the Treaty of Friendship, Good-neighbourliness, and Cooperation signed by Bulgaria and North Macedonia in 2017 should not be a part of that country's EU accession negotiating framework.

According to the Macedonian Church, the Macedonian Government in cooperation with all socio-political factors in the country should strive to completely preserve the Macedonian identity, language, and culture within the framework of European values. In pursuit of this goal, the historic issues between the two countries and the bilateral Good-Neighbourliness Treaty should be left out of the negotiating framework, the Church argued.

"We hope that the Bulgarian authorities will come to terms with reality, that they will comply with the proposals of the international institutions, and that they will allow the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria to exercise their fundamental human rights, on a basis of reciprocity, in view of Bulgaria's demands to North Macedonia," the Church stated.