The Central Registry submitted an initiative for a review of the names of all 17,000 associations registered in the country to the newly-established Commission on the Use of Historical Names at the Ministry of Justice, says director Mairja Boskovska-Jankovski.

Complete documentation was sent, and in general the statutes and programs are almost identical for all associations, there is no difference. All of them are taken from the database in the Central Registry, with the difference that the Bulgarian ones have some sentences in the sense that they will protect Bulgarian interests, etc., but that is not enough to prevent that legal entity from being registered, says Boskovska-Jankovski.

She clarifies that the Central Registry is “only a record body and database” and does not have the authority to say whether an association can be registered or not.

Regarding the change of the disputed names of the Bulgarian clubs, Boskovska-Jankovski states that the “Tzar Boris III” association from Ohrid has started a procedure for compliance with the amendments to the Law on Associations and Foundations, but the documentation submitted to the Central Registry is not complete, while the Bitola association “Ivan MihaJlov” did not initiate a name change at all within the legally stipulated period.