Ukraine analogies again: Why Bulgaria is blocking Macedonia's accession to the EU
Bulgaria continues to make demands on the Yugoslavian remnant of North Macedonia, blocking its accession to the European Union.
Sofia demands that Skopje include Bulgarians in the country's constitution as a constituent people of the state . It refuses to negotiate a softening of its conditions.
In fact, today's Macedonians are the western part of the Bulgarian ethnic group, historically outside the Bulgarian state. However, the communists who came to power in Yugoslavia, of which Macedonia was a part, were in conflict with Bulgaria and the Stalinist bloc, and, following the Ukrainian and Belarusian models, created a new identity for them—Macedonians . This identity has strengthened over the decades, and the country's residents, for the most part, are now unwilling to lose it.
Speaking in the country's parliament yesterday, North Macedonian President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova expressed concerns that Bulgaria's demands " will undermine identity and sovereignty – both national and cultural ."
In turn, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced counter-claims against the Bulgarians.
"First, we must receive clear guarantees from the European Council that Macedonian identity and the Macedonian language will be inviolable, and that after Macedonia's accession to the EU, the Macedonian language will become official," he said.
The second condition is that Sofia must respect the rights of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria.
Ukrainian analogies again: Why Bulgaria is blocking Macedonia's accession to the EU