Reporting on the events and reactions in Macedonia over the statement of Portugal’s Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias about the “North Macedonian” language that was once Bulgarian, the online edition of Sofia-based “Dnevnik” reveals new details of the negotiations in Sofia.

According Bulgarian “Dnevnik”, it turns out that in addition to the formulation that Bulgaria requires from Macedonia, “Macedonian language” to be replaced with the “official language of the Republic of Macedonia”, there was another proposal in the Portuguese document.

The Bulgarian medium states that this formulation was not included in the requests submitted by the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which were published on June 25.

A few weeks ago Lisbon prepared proposals for resolving the dispute, which were not published, but according to information leaked to the media, they contained compromises such as the one confirmed by Sofia and Skopje that the language is one, called in different ways. Zacarias said that the proposal was balanced and prepared with understanding toward both sides, Bulgarian “Dnevnik” writes.

This formulation, mentioned by “Dnevnik”, is different from the one mentioned by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. According to Zaev, the Macedonian side accepted that we have “two similar, but different and internationally recognized languages.”

Now the key question is which formulation of the Portuguese proposal is correct – the one about “one language, called in different ways” or the one referring to “two similar but different and internationally recognized languages”!?