The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry summoned the Croatian Ambassador to deliver her a protest note regarding the comments Croatian President Zoran Milanovic made on the dispute with Macedonia. During a recent conference of Balkan leaders in Slovenia, Milanovic strongly condemned Bulgaria for its blockade of Macedonia’s EU integration.

Milanovic said that Bulgaria is interfering in Macedonia’s “personal space”. “The demands that a candidate country redefines its national genesis in its history books, based on claims from a neighboring country, that is intrusion in one’s personal space. I will openly resist that”, Milanovic said.

Bulgaria demands that Macedonia makes major concessions on issues of national identity and national history before it will lift its veto for Macedonia’s EU accession talks.