President Stevo Pendarovski, well known for penchant to share details of bilateral negotiations with the public, said that there was a tentative agreement reached between Macedonia and Bulgaria in Berlin, but Bulgarian leaders later recanted.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his deputy Michael Roth had the two leading Macedonian diplomats Nikola Dimitrov and Bujar Osmani to Berlin for an urgent meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, while Chancellor Merkel and President Steinmeier spoke on the phone with Zaev and Borisov/Pendarovski and Radev. The flurry of activity did not bring any results as Bulgaria decided to block the opening of accession talks, at least for the time being.

The teams met in Berlin a few days ago. There were several ideas on the table. With exceptional efforts from the two German ministers Maas and Roth, according to sources in both delegations, a mutual agreement was reached. Allegedly, what was agreed verbally in Berlin was later rejected by both Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Pendarovski explained in a TV interview, insisting that he has no first hand information but only has some insight into the developments even though the spoke to Radev and Steinmeier and is the President of the country.

Pendarovski did not say what concessions were Dimitrov and Osmani prepared to make to Bulgaria, which demands that Macedonia declares the Macedonian nation and language as derived from the Bulgarian. Bulgaria also wants to have figures from Macedonian history declared as Bulgarians, that this is taught in Macedonian schools, and even to curb the use of the imposed name “North Macedonia”.

Asked what are the odds to open accession talks in December, on a scale from 1 to 10, Pendarovski put them at 3.