Slovakian Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok responded to the Bulgarian protests after the country, along with the Czech Republic, blocked the EU enlargement conclusions that would’ve accused Macedonia of falsifying history. In a press statement, Korcok responded to Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and told her that Slovakia can’t let Bulgaria impose this condition, among other things because Slovakia also honors the Ss. Cyril and Methodius, who Bulgaria claims from Macedonia.

I’m sorry but we had to block the Council conclusions on enlargement. This document inappropriately brings to the agenda sensitive historic issues in the relations between an EU member state and EU candidate countries. There is a certain line here because we are not helping the accession process and we are demotivating the candidates from conducting further reforms. Nobody blames Macedonia that it doesn’t meet the conditions to open new chapters, but that it allegedly doesn’t implement a bilateral treaty with Bulgaria, Korcok said.

The intervention from Czechia and Slovakia was a surprising twist in the EU enlargement agony for Macedonia. It does not allow the opening of accession talks, and adopting the conclusion Bulgaria insisted on also likely wouldn’t have meant start of talks, but it could stop Bulgaria from making its historic claims on Macedonia an official part of the EU enlargement process.