Sofia, 22 June 2022 (MIA) – Members of the foreign affairs committee of the Bulgarian National Assembly postponed Wednesday the session that should have focused on the proposal by the French EU Presidency for settlement of the Bulgaria-North Macedonia dispute, MIA reports from Sofia. Elaborating the decision, former Bulgarian foreign minister and GERB MP Ekaterina Zaharova said the government is the institution that must declare its position on the proposal prior to its discussion in the National Assembly. Nine deputies of GERB, Movement for Rights and Freedoms, There is Such a People and Revival voted in favor of the session’s postponement, while eight MPs of the ruling We Continue the Change, Bulgarian Socialist Party and Democratic Bulgaria voted against. Earlier, GERB leader Boyko Borissov urged for the decision on accepting the ‘French proposal’ over unblocking North Macedonia’s EU integration process to be first adopted by the Bulgarian government and then forwarded to the parliament for approval, but Lena Borislavova, Chief of PM Petkov’s Office, has rejected this demand in a statement for Sofia daily Dnevnik, saying the government would not back down from the formula of having the ‘French proposal’ first approved by the National Assembly’s committee on foreign affairs and at a plenary session , and then by the executive.