Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, said that Bulgaria should not completely lift the veto, but should move it in order for the Bulgarian demands to enter Macedonia’s EU accession negotiations and thus the whole of Europe to guarantee the conditions set by Sofia.

We need to get them on the train to Europe, but the criteria they need to meet are clearly set by us. We give the Republic of Macedonia a path to Europe, but that path is set with demands and responsibilities, clearly defined in the negotiation framework and thus we use the whole of Europe to guarantee the progress we want as Bulgarians, said Petkov.

He says not all of Bulgaria’s demands can be expected to be met now, before negotiations begin.

The stupidest thing we can do now is against the Bulgarian interest and we will stumble. To demand everything we wanted to happen, to happen before the veto is lifted. Then the nationalists will take power there and then our chances are zero. Now we have a normal government there and it is ready to take over the engagements with a European agreement, Petkov said.