Portugal presides over the Council of the European Union for another month, which is looking for a way for Macedonia and Bulgaria to reach an agreement and for the country to get a date for the start of EU negotiations.

It was similar 19 years ago

In 1992, the then European Economic Community was chaired by Portugal. Then the Lisbon Declaration was adopted, which as a condition for the recognition of the Republic of Macedonia determined the name of the country not to contain the word “Macedonia”.

At that time, Macedonia had declared independence but was not recognized by any EEC country or the United Nations.

The EEC requirement was partially met because with the Interim Agreement with Greece, Macedonia became a member of the UN with the temporary reference “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.