A regular session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is being held in Strasbourg this week. Many important topics will be discussed, including the aggression that is currently happening in Ukraine and the need to ensure peace in Europe, said VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski.

Topics that are important for Macedonia and our neighborhood will also be discussed. In the numerous meetings that I will have in these three days, I will ask Macedonia to finally get a date for the start of EU negotiations and to start negotiations with the EU, because the citizens of Macedonia deserve it.

Also, in my meetings and addresses, I will call on Bulgaria to implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, here in Strasbourg, which it does not implement. Numerous judgments in favor of the Macedonians from Bulgaria are not enforced by Bulgaria. One of the most significant that the court passed in 2020 is the ruling on the establishment of a club for ethnic tolerance, as well as the ruling on the establishment of a club for victims who were terrorized by the communist regime. These are two important judgments that speak of ethnic tolerance in Bulgaria, but also of the need to rehabilitate the victims of communist terror in Bulgaria. Something that Bulgaria does not want to implement, because the policy it is pursuing is similar to the policy it has been pursuing for the past 20 years, which is a policy of denial and a policy that means disrespecting the decisions of the Council of Europe.

That is why I will strongly ask for the implementation of these judgments through the mechanisms of the Council of Europe.

Also, another thing that we will talk about is the interference of Prime Minister Petkov in the internal affairs of Macedonia. Namely, with his last statement in which he says what kind of Government he would like in Macedonia and whether or not he would allow the formation of a Government in Macedonia, he directly interferes in the internal affairs of Macedonia, which is inadmissible. Because the election of the Government in Macedonia is a matter for the Parliament and the MPs who were elected at the elections, and not for Kiril Petkov. The new government will be formed after the early parliamentary elections and any interference by Bulgaria is inadmissible and is interference directly in the internal affairs of Macedonia.