BRUSSELS – New Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Velislava Petrova-Chamova, stated yesterday that she had a “good first meeting” with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, Timčo Mucunski, at the European Union Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. Bulgaria has a clearly expressed position on Macedonia’s EU integration, which from 2022 is no longer a bilateral issue, but a matter of discussion between the European Union and a candidate country, she said.
Petrova-Chamova became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Rumen Radev, which was sworn in earlier this month after his victory in the parliamentary election.
Bulgaria has been blocking North Macedonia’s progress on its EU accession path since 2020, citing unresolved issues concerning shared history and identity, as well as the status of the Bulgarian minority in the country.
In 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted a Negotiating Framework with North Macedonia, which entails amendments to the Constitution to include the Bulgarian people in the preamble.
The current Government of North Macedonia, led by the VMRO-DPMNE party, has not implemented this condition and has attempted to negotiate no further conditioning of the country’s EU path.
Speaking to the media ahead of yesterday’s Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Velislava Petrova-Chamova said that North Macedonia has a unique opportunity.
“We see that countries like Montenegro and Albania are making serious progress. This enlargement window could open in the coming years, and if they do not seize this opportunity, they could really lose. They need to adhere to the 2022 agreement and take the necessary political steps. They need to open their European path,” Petrova-Chamova said.
Following these comments, Timčo Mucunski wrote on his Facebook page that Petrova-Chamova and he did not have an “official meeting”, but a “short exchange of words on the sidelines of an event, in the presence of several colleagues”.
He also pointed out that the Bulgarian Foreign Minister had used the term “North Macedonian” to refer to the Macedonian people, which is “incorrect and inappropriate”.
“And, as I told Velislava, I hope that we will soon really hold a meeting – in a friendly and positive atmosphere, aimed at building good-neighborly relations and our common European future”, Mucunski concluded.
