Via a Zoom meeting, Macedonian and Bulgarian politicians, scholars and public figures set up a club meant to improve relations between the two countries – which are badly worsened after the Bulgarian veto of Macedonia’s EU accession talks.

On the Macedonian side, the club will include former Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and Vlado Buckovski, several journalists and historians, and outspoken philosopher Katerina Kolozova. On the Bulgarian side, it has professors Ivaylo Dichev, Stefan Dechev and Aleksandar Kosev, journalists Boyko Stankushev and Ivo Berov, writer Chavdar Cenov, tennis player Magdalena Maleeva and others.
During the open event, Buckovski said that he expects Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov to lift the veto and that there is a document that is already acceptable to both sides.

We need to give chance to a different kind of civic activism and create a different type of atmosphere in both societies, because obviously, over the past few months, we witnessed predominantly hate speech in the media. We have an ambitious program for this platform of friendship and cooperation between both societies, Buckovski said.

Kolozova added that the mood in both societies is polarized by the Bulgarian veto, but also by the Macedonian response to the veto. Professor Stefan Dechev asked that both countries return to the basis of the treaty signed by Zoran Zaev and Boyko Borisov in 2017.

We now have two documents, adopted by the Bulgarian and the Macedonian Parliament, which set out the red lines. These documents are pure ideology and it will get us nowhere, Dechev said.