Abandoned red lines and diplomatic debacle, accuses former Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov after the the French proposal on overcoming the Bulgarian-Macedonian dispute and open negotiations with the EU was released.

I do not know what is worst, to trust our people that they do not have the proposal or not to trust them. If they are not up to date with a proposal regarding the Macedonian troubles with Bulgaria, then it is a recognition that they have not done their job on the most important issue for the nation. If they have it, and they say they do not have it, they are playing with the public’s trust, Dimitrov told DW.

The proposal of the French presidency, according to the ex-minister, brings us further and not closer to EU membership.

The key question is whether through such an agreement we are closer to the goal – EU membership. For me, there are no dilemmas. With such a framework, the EU is further from today, when we have not yet started negotiations, says Dimitrov.

He explains that proposals for resolving a problem between two sides always come first to the stakeholders, but the fact that such a proposal “has fallen on the table at all is already a debacle for Macedonian diplomacy.”

The inclusion of the Bulgarian demands in the negotiation process, in the most important part – the Fundamentals cluster, puts our destiny entirely in the hands of Sofia. If it is not satisfied with anything (not only the inclusion of the Bulgarians in the Constitution), we will stand in place or they will take us back, says Dimitrov.