“Disappointed that we are still talking about negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia”, Varhelyi: Postponement of Balkan integration is not in EU interest

At the Forum for Relations between the European Union and the Western Balkans, held in Sofia on Tuesday, Commissioner Varhelyi said that “I am extremely disappointed that we are still talking about the start of negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania. “I thought we solved this issue two years ago, but now it is back on the table.”

Varhelyi stressed that the EU has neither the time nor the interest to postpone the first intergovernmental conferences with Skopje and Sofia.

“All member states need to understand the transformative power of the accession process. And this is the message I am bringing back to Sofia. “I was here three weeks ago and I will come as long as necessary to resolve this issue in June this year, because the war in Ukraine has shown us that we have no time to lose and no interest that this process is not delayed.” he said.
According to him, “the war in Ukraine and the lessons of the past have shown that the process of full integration of the Western Balkans into the EU must be accelerated.”

But despite EU Enlargement and Good Neighborhood Policy Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi’s request for a settlement of the Skopje-Sofia dispute, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska reiterated that the Bulgarian veto on Skopje would not to be removed without meeting the requirements for the inclusion of the Bulgarian minority in the constitution of Northern Macedonia.

“It is a condition of the statement of the Bulgarian National Assembly and has been confirmed by the National Security Consultative Council. At this stage, it is important that this condition is met before the start of negotiations “, stated Gençovska at the Forum for Relations between the European Union and the Balkans in Sofia.

Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski has described the Sofia opposition as a political war between Bulgarian parties over the instability of the Bulgarian government.

“Political war in a neighboring country, a member state of the European Union and populist-nationalist rhetoric can not be an obstacle to the membership of a country that has four consecutive reports to launch the first Intergovernmental Conference,” said Prime Minister Kovacevski in Skopje.

Bulgaria, as an EU member state, used its veto in November 2020 to block Northern Macedonia from launching European membership talks. Sofia disputes the Macedonian language and identity, urging Skopje to acknowledge “Bulgarian roots” in their identity. Bulgaria also demands respect for the rights of Bulgarians living in northern Macedonia, demanding their inclusion in the country’s constitution as a state-building people.

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