Bulgaria’s interim Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev said that talks on the dispute with Macedonia are the highest priority for the country. He implicitly accused Macedonia of violating the 2017 Zaev – Borisov treaty and said that Bulgaria will turn to the EU to demand guarantees that the treaty will be upheld.

Bulgaria is currently blocking Macedonia from opening EU accession talks, while it demands serious concessions on matters of national identity and history – as provided in the treaty. For this, Bulgaria faced some pressure from EU officials and countries like Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Portugal.

We are looking to return this matter in the normal European format, so that the EU member states can review the issue and give Bulgaria the necessary guarantees that what is agreed in the bilateral format will be implemented in the future. This EU monitoring will guarantee that the bilateral treaties will be implemented after they are signed, Stoev said.