We will not allow that the Union be the judge of our shared history, how we identify ourselves or the language we use, Czech and Slovak Foreign Ministers Tomàš Petríček and Ivan Korčok said in a joint statement, after they did not agree on the EU conclusions on the enlargement. In the final text of the conclusions, at the request of Bulgaria, the clause “misinterpretation of history” was used, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia consider that it is harmful and will bring about further complications down the road.

Given the key role of this document and upon careful consideration we were unable to give our consent to the draft presented for approval today. The text as it stands contained elements including the notion of falsifying history that in our view would be hugely detrimental to the enlargement process and could potentially bring about further complications down the road. The main goal is and remains to adopt the negotiation framework as soon as possible and we believe after further analysis that the current text could complicate its adoption down the road. We will not allow that the Union be the judge of our shared history, how we identify ourselves or the language we use, reads the statement.

Furthermore, we are deeply disappointed that the negotiating frameworks for both Macedonia as well as for Albania have not been approved, the ministers said.