English
The Macedonian Foreign Ministry exchanged statements with the Foreign Ministry of Bulgaria, after Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that Bulgaria has raised objections about the use of the Macedonian language. The issue is that the action plan on minority rights, that Macedonia intends to adopt to placate Bulgarian issues over the position of the small Bulgarian minority in Macedonia, was written in Macedonian.
Macedonia remains committed to European rules and the merit-based approach to enlargement. The draft action plan for the protection and promotion of the rights of members of the communities has been prepared in Macedonian and English by domestic and international experts, in close consultation with the Council of Europe and the European Commission. The document contains clearly defined measures, deadlines and defines the competent institutions and is fully aligned with the highest European standards, the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its statement.
The process of preparing the action plan took place in several phases, starting in 2023, with the final elaboration being intensified in the last six months of 2025, and throughout the entire process, domestic and international experts in the field of international law, human rights and minority rights were actively involved and regularly consulted, while the Council of Europe and the European Commission emphasized that the document covers all relevant European and international standards.
We emphasize that Macedonia has been recognized as a positive example at the European level in the application of community rights and will continue to be so in the future. We remain firmly committed to equality, inclusion and the efficient implementation of policies in the interest of all our citizens, said the Ministry.
In its statement, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry avoided using the term Macedonian language, and refers to it as the “available language” that is in use in Macedonia. Sofia also expects that Macedonia will amend its Constitution to include the Bulgarian minority in its preamble, even as Macedonia expects guarantees from the EU that this will be the last nationalist demand from Bulgaria before it is met.
Prime Minister Mickoski yesterday said that he was consulting with EU officials before sending the action plan to Bulgaria, but that, as he has warned the EU, the plan was rejected by Bulgaria, as it cited the language in which it was written.
No other EU member states has any issue with it, no minority in Macedonia has an issue with it, since it was adopted after a public debate. But, the problem was that it was written in Macedonian. Forgive me, but my native language is the Macedonian language, the official language is the Macedonian language, there is no other language. If someone objects to that, I can’t help them. I regret that it is the case, the Prime Minister told the press.