Following his second visit to Brussels in a matter of days, Zoran Zaev again reiterated his newly found “red lines” on the Macedonian national issues against Bulgaria, which is vetoing Macedonia’s EU accession prospects. He said that he still hopes that the Portuguese Presidency of the European Council will be able to achieve some break-through in its final weeks, but also told the public to be aware of the reality.

The reality is that Bulgaria has a technical Government but doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do all to find a solution. I think it would be good for the Bulgarian side as well if a solution is found. Their own citizens told them at the elections that they will not reward policies that bring hostility, blockades and obstacles, Zaev said in an interview, alluding to the poor electoral results of the nationalist VMRO-BND party and of the conservative GERB party.

Zaev also assured Bulgaria that allowing a inter-governmental conference between Macedonia and the EU would be small half-step and it would not relinquish its leverage over Macedonia and its ability to push Macedonia to make concessions down the road.

The novelty here is that the Portuguese Presidency is developing a strategy it will use on Sofia and on Skopje. I believe it will happen by the end of the week. They know our red lines. We went to Brussels and we told them – if you touch the Macedonian national identity and language, remove us from the accesion talks. Nobody will negotiate on our identity, Zaev said.

Zaev met with European Council President Charles Michel earlier this week, as well as with EU’s foreign policy representative Josep Borrell.