Skopje, 12 February 2025 (MIA) – The Munich Security Conference is the event where high-level Macedonian and Bulgarian officials might meet after the formation of a new government in Sofia last month. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the government is yet to establish communication with the new Bulgarian government and expects Foreign Minister Timcho Mucunski to meet with his Bulgarian counterpart, Georg Georgiev, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, due on February 14. President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova has said she sees the EU accession path being unblocked.

“We haven’t had contact with the new Bulgarian Government. I expect the Minister of Foreign Affairs to meet with his counterpart in the Bulgarian government on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, but this is yet to be confirmed. If it happens the public will of course be informed,” Mickoski told journalists asked whether the government has contacted the new Bulgarian Government and whether he would initiate a meeting with the Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.

Last week, Mickoski said he expects meetings to be held with representatives of the Bulgarian Government to discuss a solution to unblock the country’s Euro-integration path.

“In the past, we have already had meetings with the Bulgarian leadership at the highest level and their then caretaker prime minister. I expect that in the next period there will be meetings with the Bulgarian Government at various levels and this should not surprise us. Neither will we disappear, nor will they disappear, we will still be neighbors,” Mickoski said.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, President Siljanovska Davkova said she expected the Macedonian EU integration process to be unblocked noting a breakthrough has been made, according to information she has learned.

The Friends of Europe group, she said, is active and there are creative solutions in the sense that our path to clusters 2, 3 and 4 could open.

According to the President, the process doesn’t only depend on the country which, she said, “has shown unheard levels of cooperation in terms of the Euro-integrations.”

“I think we need to talk, to negotiate. Based on what I know, a step forward has been made. I met the Bulgarian President in Auschwitz as well. We have friendly dialogue and understanding. I expect direct meetings to discuss potential solutions. What is new and inspirational is that the ‘Friends of the Western Balkans’ group, which means our friends too, is active. I know that there are creative solutions, in the sense that our path to clusters 2, 3 and 4 could open. You know that we reached an Agreement on the Common Foreign and Security Policy. In fact, despite not being an EU member state we have a fully aligned common foreign and security policy and I think time is needed, as well as goodwill and good neighborliness. In good neighborliness, I cannot recognize mechanisms such as the veto and other similar threats,” the President told journalists.

Minister of European Affairs Orhan Murtezani told MIA last week in Brussels that Bulgaria’s representative in the Working Party on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession to the EU conveyed that the Bulgarian side is ready for talks and sent positive signals regarding the establishment of dialogue.

“I think a good environment is being created, which we must use not only to establish dialogue that must exist between neighboring countries but also to create room that will lead us to a mutually acceptable solution and finally get us into the EU,” Murtezani said.

In an attempt to unblock the country’s European path to start negotiations with the EU with the opening of the first cluster “Fundamentals”, the government has proposed a solution that involves constitutional amendment with delayed effect, aka “French proposal plus”. According to the proposal, the Constitution will be amended to include the Bulgarians as one of the minorities living in the country only to enter into force once Bulgaria ratifies the agreement for the country’s membership in the European Union after the completion of the accession negotiations. 

Euractive has reported that the new Bulgarian government refuses to negotiate with North Macedonia to soften the conditions under which Skopje can start EU accession negotiations.

“Three years ago, Bulgaria and North Macedonia reached an agreement, mediated by France, on mutual concessions that would unblock the process of European integration in the Western Balkans. The government in Skopje agreed to include the Bulgarian minority in its constitution, and the authorities in Sofia promised to lift the veto on the start of negotiations with North Macedonia,” the article published Monday states.

Euractiv notes that in early 2024, “the right-wing nationalist party VMRO-DMPNE came to power, and the party leader Hristijan Mickoski became prime minister” promising not to make concessions to Sofia.  ba/ad/

MIA file photo