Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov threatened to veto Macedonia’s EU accession talks unless the country implements in full the treaty he signed with Zoran Zaev in 2017. Borisov was speaking after the online EU summit and insisted that Bulgaria supported Macedonia’s EU path, but with a caveat.

It’s their right to do so if they want, Borisov said when asked about a statement from Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski who said that, if Macedonia is forced to give up on its language it will rather give up on its EU path.

Borisov then pointed to the EU conclusions, saying that all EU member states called on Macedonia to fully implement the Zaev – Borisov treaty.

We are a European country we operate under European standards. A European standard is to follow the documents. There is a document in which 27 countries, as well as the President of the European Parliament, Commission and Council, in which they directly point to the Treaty of good-neighborly relations and point to Bulgaria. This means that our diplomatic job is done. If they stray from this document, Bulgaria can block them at every chapter of the EU accession talks. I told them, that is up to them. Our job is done… We told them what our conditions are for them to be accepted to the European Union. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it. We supported them for NATO. What are we supposed to do, say that we are Macedonians? We proposed this, the other countries accepted it and it is done, Borisov said.

Borisov urged Macedonia to implement the treaty in order to receive EU funding for its healthcare system hit by the coronavirus and other perks of membership. The key Bulgarian request currently is that the joint commission of historians meets and begins to decide on “mutually acceptable” narratives about a number of historic figures, like Goce Delcev, who Bulgaria wants to see declared as Bulgarian heroes. Additionally, Bulgaria wants Macedonia to give up on the possibility of having the Macedonian language – which Bulgaria deems just a western dialect of the Bulgarian language – made an official EU language in the course of the accession talks.