site.btaEU Ambassador in North Macedonia Comments Attack on Bulgarian Cultural Club in Ohrid

Taking a journalist's question here on Thursday, EU Ambassador to the Republic of North Macedonia David Geer said it is very important to respect the rights of all communities in the country, and all efforts should be made by all sides to reach mutual understanding and avoid tension. “I will not go into the interpretation of history but when it comes to the latest incident, North Macedonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a very clear way that the line has been crossed,” he said, referring to Wednesday’s attack on Bulgarian cultural club King Boris III in Ohrid that left its sign broken. 

Geer commented on attack during a joint news conference with North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj about a progress report by the European Commission.

On his part, Marichikj said that representatives of the government have already condemned and described as provocation the opening of clubs with disputable names. However, in a country that is a NATO, Council of Europe and OSCE member and an EU candidate country, it is better for such problems to be solved through institutions rather than violence.

In his words, violence does not solve problems. The Central Registry, the prosecution service and the corresponding courts have opportunities in accordance with the law to protect the public order regarding the names of such associations. The Central Registry is already working on some of these cases, and legislative changes based on European standards are underway to firmly determine the matter of possible and acceptable names of associations, Marichikj said.

“If we apply these European standards, there will not be a problem and that is much better than having individual acts of violence,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted. The foreign ministries of North Macedonia and Bulgaria are communicating regularly and “all these cases are communicated”, he added, recalling that the foreign ministries work as contact points for the implementation of the bilateral protocol in the part about hate speech.