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The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Kiril Petkov, on Saturday, February 16, visited the city of Bitola in Northern Macedonia, where he stressed the need for good neighborly relations, not only between the two countries, but also in the wider region. of the Western Balkans.
Speaking about the dispute between the two countries over its historical past as well as respect for the rights of the Bulgarian minority in northern Macedonia, Petkov said the two governments are working intensively to find an acceptable solution.
Reaching a solution will enable the lifting of the Bulgarian veto on the start of negotiations for the European membership of Northern Macedonia, vetoed in November 2020.
“If we do not have peace and stability in the Balkans and if we can not remove the borders, if businesses can not work on both sides, if people can not have a general vision that together they can do more, we will not to achieve nothing “, declared Petkov, after the opening of the Bulgarian Cultural Center in the city of Bitola.
But Petkov has denied that there is a draft agreement at the moment, as stated by the Macedonian Foreign Minister, Bujar Osmani, who on Wednesday, April 13, said that Northern Macedonia agrees with a document for resolving the dispute and that he expects a response. from the Bulgarian side, but without giving details of what the proposal is about.
Such statements had led Bulgarian Prime Minister Petkov to be threatened by coalition parties with ousting the Bulgarian Government if he reached any agreement without the consent of all parties.
In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Teodora Genchovska, who of Slavi Trifunov’s parties, “There is such a people”, stated that he is not optimistic about the opening of negotiations with Northern Macedonia during the presidency of the European Union by France. .
On Thursday, April 14, in a closed session of the Bulgarian Parliament, Genchovska stressed that no progress has been made on open political issues. The Bulgarian Foreign Minister has said that there is no time until the end of June for the opening of the Constitution of Northern Macedonia for the inclusion of Bulgarians in it, as a state-building people of Northern Macedonia.
“If we really look at the end of the French presidency of the Council of Europe, I doubt that my colleagues from Northern Macedonia will be able to open the Constitution and close this process,” said Gencovska.
The Governments of Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria in January formed working groups with the aim of establishing cooperation in all areas, including the historical ones, by June, thus overcoming the differences in unlocking the process of European integration of Macedonia. Veriut./REL
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