In an interview with a group of editors from the main media outlets in Macedonia, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski discussed the dispute with Bulgaria, that continues to block Macedonia’s EU accession process. The Prime Minister said that Macedonia is absolutely prepared to negotiate with Bulgaria, but that it will not go back to the policies of the previous Government, which continued to make concessions with the Macedonian identity.

We have a problem with including the Bulgarians in the Constitution now. We have no problem including them once we are part of the European Union. In the previous years, Macedonia made too many concessions toward Bulgaria. We must not be naive any more. What is the guarantee that there won’t be a new demand in six months time?, Mickoski said, indicating that once Macedonia meets the current Bulgarian demand, it can expect a number of new demands that will continue to burder the EU accession process.

Mickoski insists that the implementation of the constitutional changes is made as the final concession, as Bulgaria allows Macedonia into the EU, to prevent it from bringing up new demands in the course of the process.

Bulgaria is moving toward denying our identity markings. I have a problem with the fact that Macedonians in Bulgaria are not allowed even to register a civic organization. Bulgaria is a signatory to the Convention for protection of human rights, but it does not want to meet the requirements, the Prime Minister added.

He urged ethnic Bulgarians in Macedonia who feel that their rights have been infringed to turn to the European Court of Human Rights. The court has already decided in 14 cases where it found that Bulgaria has violated the rights of its ethnic Macedonian citizens, but there are no such decisions against Macedonia regarding the rights of ethnic Bulgarians.