The French proposal envisions lifting the veto and the EU becoming a guarantor that Skopje will meet Sofia’s conditions. This is the initial information that arrives regarding the French proposal, which is eagerly awaited in Macedonia and Bulgaria, writes Deutsche Welle.

The French rotating presidency is ready to include Bulgaria’s demands in the negotiating framework for Macedonia and the EU to become a guarantor of their implementation, and is expected to be approved by other member states despite reservations that bilateral issues are being transferred to Europe. “The Western Balkans should move towards the EU,” the Bulgarian Mediapool news portal reported, citing diplomats.

The proposal first on the Bulgarian table

Attention in both Skopje and Sofia is entirely focused on the French proposal, which is expected to answer whether there is a possibility of lifting the veto and opening the doors of the EU to the Western Balkans. It was announced that France will send the draft of the new negotiating framework for Macedonia to Bulgaria and to other member states.

According to the Bulgarian National Radio, it is expected to appear before the Government later in the day, and then he will have to go to the Bulgarian Parliament, after the Council of Ministers, at the request of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, decided to make decisions on all issues related to Macedonia and the veto.

The proposal is eagerly awaited in Skopje as well. Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski said today that Skopje had not received the French proposal. “We have talks with our Bulgarian colleagues. I do not intend to comment on whether the government or the Parliament in Sofia will succeed, it is a Bulgarian domestic policy,” said President Pendarovski when asked about the French proposal to lift the veto from Bulgaria. He says the French proposal is an internal matter of the EU in the framework of the preparation of the conclusions of the European Council that France, as the EU presidency, should submit to all member states.

Uncertainty in Skopje as well

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who is visiting the country, after the meeting with Pendarovski in Ohrid, did not want to comment on what will be in the conclusions, explaining that there is a need for discretion ahead of the EU Summit.

Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani will first wait for the reactions in Bulgaria, so he will give his remarks on the French proposal, if any. “In these last days, the French presidency should take the helm and tell us, based on the assessment they receive from Sofia, whether there is room for some more substantial engagement and from the talks they have with us, whether they will go to the next step. If they go to the next step, our position is to see a unified position from all member states, including Bulgaria, and then we will say our remarks if we have remarks on such a French proposal,” Osmani said.