- So far, the union has never been a party to bilateral disputes. Skopje will even have to change its constitution to begin negotiations
“Macedonia!”
With this battle cry, Slavi Trifonov, currently the party leader of “There is such a people”, tried to explain in an interview a week ago why he was leaving the ruling coalition. There followed a week of attacks on how the government was selling the national interest, which intensified further after the so-called a French proposal to unblock the dispute between Sofia and Skopje.
And President Rumen Radev directly tried to insult Kiril Petkov by asking if he was a courier or a prime minister. And for a whole week he did not stop talking about apostasy and betrayal.
Obviously, however, neither Radev nor Slavi understand what has happened in the last six months on the topic of Northern Macedonia. And since the code of honor of the Bulgarian officer and the Bulgarian showman does not include lies, they probably fall victim to the educational system and the lack of reading comprehension skills.
In fact, in his six months as head of state, Kiril Petkov and his adviser, Vessela Cherneva (accused of being an illegal foreign minister at the ITN), managed to achieve things that were unthinkable until recently. First, to change the widespread misunderstanding in the EU about the Bulgarian conditions in relation to Northern Macedonia. And secondly, to change the Union’s policies to such an extent that a bilateral dispute could be included in official EU documents. Something no one had ever achieved before. Let us just recall how delayed Croatia’s accession to the EU was due to a border dispute with Slovenia, which has already joined the union.
The French proposal is the best solution proposed since 2019, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and former Foreign Minister Christian Vigenin admitted in a Facebook dispute.
What has actually happened since 2019? First, then-Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov in Sofia and Zoran Zaev in Skopje were the first friends to sign the historic friendship treaty. And Borissov even tried to reconcile the Macedonians and the Greeks, and regardless of whether he has merit, the fact is that it happened. Suddenly, however, Zaev had to win elections and threw himself at the convenient enemy – the Bulgarians, who are both Tatars and fascists. However, Borissov is an offensive man and immediately tied to the views of his then coalition partners from the IMRO. Parliament adopted a decision on five Bulgarian terms with Northern Macedonia in order to agree to start their EU accession talks. And President Rumen Radev decided to distribute and announce the condition for mandatory change of the constitution of the RSM and entry of Bulgarians in it. True, for 3 years Radev was confusing the terms and talking about the Bulgarian minority, no matter that the official Bulgarian position has always been that the Macedonians are Bulgarians.
Meanwhile, the head of state waved Borisov’s fist and the former government simply left the issue to its own devices. And the propaganda efforts of the northern Macedonians, who in two years managed to convince almost everyone in Europe how stupidly Sofia attacked them.
And suddenly in the series of elections in Bulgaria in 2021, Northern Macedonia and the veto became a topic. The caretaker governments, dominated by Radev, simply blocked. Meanwhile, Slavi Trifonov, who now accuses Kiril Petkov of selling national interests, was ready to veto northern Macedonia against falling American visas for Bulgarians and admitting Bulgaria to Schengen. The program of one of his failed governments included sending Bulgarian and Macedonian astronauts together into space. On the other hand, this is normal for a person who sincerely announced that the topic became close to him, because Macedonian folk songs are easy to arrange in a popular chalga. And while politicians in our country brought up the topic of domestic use like hot potatoes, Skopje continued to earn points in Europe. To such an extent that the EU member state Bulgaria suddenly found itself under pressure to fulfill conditions instead of setting them.
Against this background, Kiril Petkov’s commitment to trying to form a quadruple coalition that he could solve the problem in six months sounded like deluded creative enthusiasm. Moreover, neither he nor his alter ego Asen Vassilev had so far shown any understanding of foreign policy, the Balkans and anything more complex than anti-corruption spells.
However, Petkov bet on his foreign policy adviser to Vessela Cherneva – a diplomat with solid European experience. But she was hated by the old diplomats because she took part in clearing the cops from the State Security in the Foreign Ministry, while Nikolay Mladenov was a minister. And the new minister – the already resigned Teodora Genchovska from ITN, decided to fill the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with such staff.
Kiril Petkov’s plan turned out to be relatively simple. He and his colleague in Skopje, Dimitar Kovachevski, also a Harvard graduate, are taking small, often insignificant steps to improve their image as Cherneva tries to convince Europeans that we are right. The great struggle of the government was precisely the Bulgarian cause to become European conditions for Northern Macedonia. Which should be implemented smoothly while Skopje negotiates with Brussels. Because, as the experience of Bulgaria shows, the governments of the candidates for EU membership are much more inclined to fulfill the European conditions, stretched at the time of the negotiations, than at the start. In addition, Kovachevski simply does not have a sufficient majority in the RSM parliament to meet all our conditions in advance, especially the constitution.
The good thing about such an approach is that if Sofia receives these guarantees from the EU, the veto will fall not only on Northern Macedonia. A much more important candidate for the union is Albania, which is also blocked by disputes between Sofia and Skopje.
The European Union has never been a party to disputes between countries. And bilateral issues have never become topics for everyone in the union. Until last week, when on Friday the so-called French proposal. A move that Petkov, among other things, was forced to take in despair – to give up his constitutional right to pursue foreign policy to get rid of the false news swearing by Slavi Trifonov and Rumen Radev that he is a national traitor.
In fact, the French proposal actually fulfills what Kiril Petkov and Vessela Cherneva struggled to achieve. And it solves all our problems with Northern Macedonia.
Regional cooperation and good neighborly relations remain key elements in the enlargement process. Northern Macedonia must continue to engage constructively in inclusive regional co-operation and strengthening relations with neighboring countries. References are made to both the Prespa Agreement and the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation with Bulgaria., writes in the package documents sent by the EC as a proposal to drop the veto. And the progress of the PCM will be monitored by the European Commission. There is no reference to the framework position of the Bulgarian Parliament, but this is understandable because it is not a bilateral document.
Special attention must be paid to the protection and non-discrimination of citizens belonging to minorities or communities. In order to ensure the irreversibility of progress in these areas and full and effective implementation, progress will continue to be closely monitored by the committee, which will report regularly to the Council, it is written in the package of the so-called French proposal. And here comes even the change in the constitution of the PCM.
The Council welcomes the intention of Northern Macedonia to initiate and achieve the necessary constitutional changes as a matter of priority in order to include in the preamble of its constitution citizens who live within the country’s borders and who are part of other nations, such as Bulgarians. In practice, this means that Northern Macedonia must first include Bulgarians in its constitution and then begin negotiations. Just as Rumen Radev insists, right?
And the reason why Slavi Trifonov declared Petkov a traitor. The proposal even includes a commitment to resolving the Macedonian language dispute. A topic that Skopje and Sofia certainly cannot solve on their own.
Northern Macedonia will be subject to Bulgarianization, was the first reaction of the opposition in Skopje. Which is the same nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, which for over 10 years managed to freeze Bulgarians and Macedonians. At that moment in Sofia Petkov was attacked again as a traitor.
In fact, the truth is very simple. The EU told Macedonians they must meet Bulgaria’s terms, rescheduled them to make them feasible, and gave the two governments an alibi for lifting the veto. However, Sofia has the opportunity to return at any time to the negotiations, which will last at least 10 years. All achievements that are certainly not a national betrayal, but rather a success. Now all that remains is to bring Slavi and Radev back to fourth grade to learn reading comprehension.
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