The Prime Minister of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Dimitar Kovachevski, wrote last night on Facebook that any final agreed text of the French proposal to Sofia and Skopje has key elements that are important to him and his government.
The important things, according to Kovachevski, are:
“Clear wording for the Macedonian language in the negotiating framework and clear protection of the Macedonian identity;
Historical issues should not be criteria in the negotiating framework;
Negotiations between Northern Macedonia and the EU must begin before Bulgarians, Croats and Montenegrins are included in the preamble before the start of the constitutional amendment procedure;
Strong guarantees from both Bulgaria and the European Union that Bulgaria will not put new demands beyond what will be agreed in the negotiating framework and the bilateral protocol, which has not yet been agreed, and any decision will have to be consulted with the institutions of the Republic of Northern Macedonia. “
Kovachevski reiterated that a formal proposal from the French presidency, accepted by all 27 member states, had not arrived.
So far, the government in northern Macedonia has not officially expressed a position on the French presidency’s proposal, but three of the smaller parties in the ruling coalition have expressed reservations about it, and local self-government minister and Liberal Democratic Party leader Goran Milevski today. said he would resign if the french presidency’s proposal for the country’s negotiating framework is accepted. “I will do everything I can to prevent the Bulgarianization of our history,” Milevski wrote on his Facebook profile.
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