Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani is in Sofia today to discuss the objections the Bulgarian Government has raised ahead of the expected opening of EU accession talks with Macedonia.
Osmani will meet with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his counterpart Ekaterina Zaharieva, and is expected to discuss the proposed visit by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to Sofia. EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi recently urged the two countries to resolve the dispute that is currently focused on the ethnic background of VMRO leader Goce Delcev, and acknowledged that Macedonia will face difficulties if agreement is not reached.
Macedonia and Bulgaria are supposed to co-host a summit as part of the Berlin process in November in Sofia, but the push to show a model of regional cooperation was overshadowed by the Bulgarian demands for major concessions on the part of Macedonia on issues of historic and national identity importance before it approves the opening of accession talks. Macedonia is still hoping to begin the talks by the end of the year, but Bulgaria has sent a strongly worded memorandum to the EU with a list of demands that stipulates that the Macedonians are a newly created nation that arose from the Bulgarians and who speak a Bulgarian dialect.
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