Gjorgji Trendafilov of the People’s Democratic Union (GDU), who alongside president of club “Vanco Mihajlov”, Ljupco Gjorgievski met Wednesday with Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani in the capacity of representatives of the various organizations of the Bulgarian community in Macedonia, said the meeting was useful and noted their activities would focus on relaxation of Skopje-Sofia relations.

We had a useful meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The meeting is largely a continuation of the talks we had in Brussels. We informed him (Osmani) about the content of the talks with the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Good Neighbourhood, (Oliver) Varhelyi and with several political groups represented in the European Parliament, who will try with their political like-minded groups and groups here in Macedonia, meaning the Conservative Party, the European People’s parties, the Progressive Socialists, to try to help calm the tensions between Skopje and Sofia and in a more relaxed atmosphere to start implementing the provisions of the 2017 Agreement, etc. “French proposal” for Macedonia in the period until October, when the Progress Report from the European Commission should be published and the country can officially start negotiations at the end of this year, said Trendafilov.

He stated that Osmani was asked to try to mediate to calm the tensions, because in an explosive atmosphere, as he says, it is impossible to bring quality rational political solutions.

I think that it is in the interest of the citizens and the country. It remains to be seen whether our work and our appeal will bear concrete political fruit, added Trendafilov.

Regarding the Resolution of the Council of Europe, which states that there is no systemic discrimination in Macedonia, Trendafilov says that he does not agree with this position, but, as he said, it will not be the focus of their activity, but as much as it is possible to contribute more to relaxing the relations between Skopje and Sofia.