Bulgarian diplomats in Brussels are working to prevent a situation where the Macedonian language could be used as official by the European Union. Bulgaria does not recognize the existence of a Macedonian nation or language separate from the Bulgarian, but one of the main pledges of Zoran Zaev was that, with the treaties he signed with Greece and Bulgaria, the Macedonian language will be in official use by the EU as accession talks begin some time in the near future.

The Macedonian language will be official in a Union of 500 million citizens!, Zaev bragged after he signed the Prespa treaty with Greece. The statement did not go down well in Sofia.

The EU looks set to deny Macedonia’s request that accession talks begin in June, but as the country begins to prepare for accession talks, as well as in communication with EU institutions which are switching to use the name “North Macedonia”, Macedonian diplomats are making efforts to officialize the use of the language. Bulgarian media report that in one such instance, Macedonia asked that communication with the EU borders management institution FRONTEX is conducted in Macedonian and the language is named as such. Bulgarian Deputy Interior Minister Milko Bernar raised the issue and insisted that FRONTEX does not refer to the Macedonian language, daily “Trud” reported.

This prompted a back and forth between Brussels and Sofia, and EU officials, “Trud” reports, asked Bulgaria to relent, citing that the Zaev Government is faced with pressure from the Macedonian opposition and needs to avoid being seen as giving up on the language issue. EU officials also asked that the Macedonian language is named under the formula used in the Prespa treaty with Greece – “Macedonian language, within the group of South Slavic languages”. Bulgaria, on the other hand, demanded the use of the formula from the treaty Zaev signed with Bulgaria – in it the Macedonian and Bulgarian language are not named but referred to as the languages according to the Constitutions of the two countries.

The issue is highly symbolic and will likely affect Macedonia’s EU accession, as Bulgaria is not expected to agree that EU allows official use of the Macedonian language, with separate translation systems introduced in the Brussels “Tower of Babel”. According to the Bulgarian authorities, the Macedonian language is merely a Western dialect of the Bulgarian language and Macedonians should agree to adopt a Bulgarian national consciousness.