Macedonian Media: North Macedonia has little hope of Starting Negotiations with the EU today

European ministers are meeting today in the December EU General Affairs Council, at which North Macedonia hopes to receive the promised start of talks, but the chances are very slim, a Brussels MIA (Macedonian Information Agency) correspondent reported.

More than a year and a half after EU leaders gave the green light to prepare a negotiating framework with North Macedonia and Albania and hold the first intergovernmental conferences to officially mark negotiations with the EU, Skopje and Tirana, there are no hopes of unblocking the situation today, due to the veto of Bulgaria.

As several senior diplomatic sources from EU member states told MIA that the option of separating Skopje and Tirana has no support from ministers other than Bulgaria. The possibility for Sofia to lift the veto on North Macedonia tomorrow or during the leaders' meeting on Thursday and Friday is in the hands of the member states and their will and ability to convince Bulgaria, the state agency of RNM notes.

Sofia insists that the Treaty of Friendship be linked to the process of enlargement of North Macedonia and that this be explicitly stated in the conclusions on North Macedonia, which are due to emerge from today's ministerial meeting. According to the media, the Slovenian Presidency, together with a number of Member States, opposes this request because it would mean the two-way process, which contradicts the new methodology of negotiations with the EU and would set a precedent for future negotiations with other countries.

In the draft conclusions, the EU has given in to Bulgaria's request to systematically use the long name Republic of North Macedonia. While for all other countries in the region the short name is used - Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, etc. without a "republic". This asymmetry is difficult to accept for the Macedonian side, which believes that in such a case the long name should be used for all countries, not just North Macedonia. This practice has become part of the daily vocabulary of diplomats and ministers of the member states, who even use the long name of the Republic of North Macedonia and the short one for all other countries at press conferences and informal briefings.

The European Union may be left without conclusions on enlargement this year as well. Although the blame for this is not only in the Bulgarian-Macedonian dispute. EU countries still cannot agree on Bosnia and Herzegovina or Turkey. By the end of the day, EU ministers, who have other items on the agenda besides enlargement, will have to reach a conclusion on negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania and draw conclusions on enlargement that will satisfy everyone.

If the Slovenian Presidency fails to do so, it is expected to announce its Presidency Conclusions, with the possibility of nominating the Member States behind those conclusions. In that case, Bulgaria may remain isolated, depending on the outcome of today's talks between EU ministers.

Last year, for the first time, member states did not announce any conclusions on enlargement, the main obstacle being Bulgaria's insistence that a sentence of "misinterpretation of history" be inserted in the section on North Macedonia. The EU proposed a compromise to include it in the introduction for all countries, but no compromise was reached. The question remains whether Bulgaria will agree not to link the Friendship Treaty to the enlargement process. If this is unblocked, Bulgaria is also likely to object to the negotiating framework of North Macedonia and, among other things, the use of a "Macedonian" language in it. We remind you that the Macedonian language is the reason why Bulgaria blocked the agreement between North Macedonia and Frontex.

/Focus

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!