Sofia, 15 June 2022 (MIA) – Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov promised he would lift the veto for the start of the accession negotiations with North Macedonia by the end of the French EU Presidency during his meeting with European Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi, the country’s Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska told MPs on Wednesday, BGNES reports. “This happened at my first meeting with Commissioner Varhelyo. Seven-eight people from the ministry of foreign affairs attended the meeting and a memorandum was drafted. This memo is open and confirms your query,” said FM Genchovska in response to a question by Revival MP Kostadin Kostadinov. Kostadinov asked if Petkov had committed to Bulgaria lifting the veto by the end of June at a meeting with Varhelyi on February 17. Earlier, Genchovska said Petkov had delivered a proposal that is practically a complete revision of the framework position that the National Assembly and the Government have adopted, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected it. Genchovska said negotiations were advancing but there are issues that remain to be solved, one being “the formulation of the so-called Macedonian language, in a historic and ethnic sense”. “I told North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani at our first meeting – communicate with me only. Unfortunately, this did not happen. North Macedonia’s representatives continued to seek communication outside the MFA in order to remove Bulgaria’s key demand – the mechanism for monitoring of the 2017 Friendship Treaty implementation,” said Genchovska. On April 5, she added, the PM’s foreign policy adviser sent a draft for an update of the framework position. “This draft does not include the Bulgarian position on the so-called Macedonian language. The demand for European guarantees regarding the 2017 Friendship Treaty is becoming unsustainable. In practice, this project combines MFA’s partial ideas over implementation of the bilateral agreement but without a clear mechanism for its implementation. The MFA has assessed that the document is entirely erroneous and rejected it as an option,” noted Genchovska. According to her, the major problem was that while MFA was trying to negotiate, an impression was given elsewhere that Bulgaria could agree to less and was prepared for concessions. Genchovska said there are four topics where progress is needed so that Bulgarian national interests are protected: implementation of the Friendship Treaty, incorporation of Bulgarians in the Constitution of North Macedonia, maintenance of the Bulgarian position over the language of the neighboring country and guarantees for these issues in the EU negotiating framework with Skopje.