Its prime minister Bulgaria Dimitar Glavtsev said today that there is no reason to retreat from his country’s position regarding the accession of the Republic of North Macedonia in the European Union. Glavtsev made the statement as the government held its weekly meeting and before leaving for Brussels for the EU-Western Balkans summit held today.

“There is no change in our position, it is a principle, it is in line with the so-called 2022 compromise. We made the compromise, it has been signed by all member states, including the Republic of North Macedonia and us,” Glavtsev said. “I see no reason to make any concession to North Macedonia from the current Bulgarian position.”

The prime minister underlined that it is not right for a candidate country to set conditions on countries that are already EU member states. He explained that usually when someone wants to join somewhere, they follow the rules established there, rather than having the rules adjusted for the person applying. “This would be an unconditional precedent and against the principles of the EU and the principles of human rights, of minorities. Because the least obstacle for the Republic of North Macedonia is the compromise of 2022, if that can be an obstacle,” he added , reiterating that North Macedonia continues to fail to meet other requirements.

Bulgaria expects to see North Macedonia amend its constitution to include Bulgarians in it before giving the green light to start accession negotiations, and this was set as a condition by the EU and accepted by Skopje. North Macedonia backed down as the government changed and the new government maintains that constitutional amendments recognizing a Bulgarian minority will not go ahead without prior guarantees from Bulgaria that it will not veto it in the future.