After the ruling SDSM and DUI parties refused to attend a hearing of the Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on the dispute with Bulgaria, SDSM representative Jovan Mitrevski said that “there is nothing to discuss”.

I see no need for the Parliament to decide on something that is a fact, Mitrevski said, speaking about the Bulgarian list of demands sent to the European Council.

Bulgaria wants Macedonia to accept a list of major concessions on national identity issues – to practically declare that the Macedonian people and language derived from the Bulgarian – and will block the opening of EU accession talks unless Macedonia delivers. The two top diplomats, Bujar Osmani and Nikola Dimitrov, refused to appear before the Parliament to brief the representatives on the state of talks, after their emergency meeting with Bulgarian Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva in Berlin.

Representatives from the DUI and BESA parties, which join SDSM in its coalition, also did not attend the hearing. Kastriot Rexhepi from BESA said that, as an Albanian, he supports ethnic Macedonians in their refusal to negotiate on their national identity. But Rexhepi added that Macedonia must respect the 2017 Zaev – Borisov treaty, which opened the way for the Bulgarian demands.