English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski briefed the country on the state of talks with Bulgaria, saying that they are missing out another opportunity to show that they are good neighbors. Mickoski said that, under EU advice, the Macedonian Government prepared an action plan for minority rights and shared it with Bulgaria, in order to assuage its concerns about the rights of the Bulgarian minority, but that the Bulgarian authorities objected because the document was written in Macedonian.
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.
Mickoski said that he forewarned the EU officials who were involved in these talks that “even if we prepare the best possible action plan on minorities, it will be rejected by Bulgaria”.
This again showed that the issue is not the minority rights or adding the Bulgarians to the Constitution. It shows that their demands have much deeper roots and that the problems and their intentions are not what is being presented, Mickoski said.
At the moment, the two countries are not conducting talks, Mickoski added. He expressed readiness to make necessary decisions – excluding adding the Bulgarian minority in the Constitution – but that Macedonia can’t give up on the Macedonian language.