In a separate declaration, distributed a few minutes ago, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Sofia indicates that the reference in EU documents to the official language of the Republic of Macedonia should in no way be interpreted as recognition of the “Macedonian language” by the Republic of Bulgaria, writes the BNT news portal.

The declaration with the Bulgarian position will be taken into account by the EU Council, the news portal writes. It was presented to the existing representatives in Brussels during the voting for the negotiating framework for Skopje.

The declaration also states that:

The Bulgarian literary language has six regional written norms (codifications). Three of them are based on dialects, and three on the literary Bulgarian language.

The creation of the “Macedonian language” in 1944-1945 in the former Yugoslavia was an act of secondary codification (re-codification) based on the Bulgarian literary language, further “enriched” with local forms, thereby simulating a “natural” process based on a dialectal form.

With measures in three documents – Negotiating Framework, Council conclusions and bilateral protocols – Bulgaria establishes measures for strict implementation of the 2017 Good Neighborly Agreement from Skopje, which the EC will follow.