One of Zaev’s advisers, Edmond Ademi, insisted that besides Slovakia and the Czech Republic, other EU member states also support Macedonia in the dispute with Bulgaria. Slovakia and the Czech Republic blocked the proposed enlargement conclusions after Bulgaria inserted clauses that would block Macedonia’s progress toward the EU if Macedonia misinterprets history. Austria was also supportive of the block imposed by the two Visegrad countries.

It’s not just Austria, Czechia and Slovakia. There are other countries who take this position, but these three were vocal. Their position is that we all know how intermingled European history is, and that it is difficult to determine what is the correct view of history. They call that history is left to the historians, while Europe deals with the issues such as Covid, Brexit and the budgetary issues, Ademi said.

The clauses Bulgaria insisted on still wouldn’t have opened the EU accession talks with Macedonia. It’s unclear what effect the veto Slovakia and the Czech Republic placed on Bulgaria’s veto will have.