Bulgaria will not give unconditional support to the EU integration of the Western Balkans, amid constant conflicts between the institutions in Sofia and Skopje, caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, said in Berlin on Monday.
Bulgaria’s main issue regarding the region is its relationship with North Macedonia, which has reached a new low since the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party came to power.
“Each country that is a candidate for EU membership must have its own merits for its participation in the European Union, as well as respect all the rights and responsibilities it has assumed in the process. So we are fervent supporters of EU enlargement,” said Glavchev.
Bulgaria has blocked North Macedonia’s EU accession bid with a demand to include ethnic Bulgarians in the constitution, which is not politically achievable as it requires a majority in parliament. This has led to frustration in Skopje and Brussels as well as the de-coupling of the Macedonian path from Albania’s.
Tirana opens the first cluster of negotiations on Tuesday, while the holdup in North Macedonia has led to criticism of the veto power of EU member states.
Tensions between Bulgaria and North Macedonia intensified recently after the latter’s flag was missing from a meeting between Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and his counterpart Gordana Silyanovska-Davkova. Macedonian Prime Minister Christian Mitkoski accused Bulgaria of trying to ‘trample on Macedonian dignity’ while Radev argued it was not a formal meeting so a flag was not necessary.
In Berlin, Glavchev also said that regarding bilateral meetings during the process, it had been suggested that the negotiations be extended to the level of EU candidate countries to avoid contradictions between the two countries.
“After all, we have done this with the Republic of North Macedonia and we are obviously moving forward because at the meeting it was given as a good example – one country negotiating with the whole European Union,” Glavchev said.
Glavchev also noted that it has become clear that Montenegro will close its negotiating chapters by the end of the year, and that Albania is expected to start opening negotiating chapters during this period.
The Berlin Process was established in 2014 as a platform to strengthen cooperation between the Western Balkan countries and the host countries of the Berlin Process as well as the EU.
The participants in the Process are the Western Balkan countries – Albania, Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo – and the countries – Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, the UK, Poland, Greece and Bulgaria.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
