SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev triumphantly announced the move by the European Commission to prepare its draft negotiating framework with Macedonia and Albania. The framework has yet to be accepted by all EU member states before Macedonia can actually open accession talks, and this will likely require additional humiliating concessions to Bulgaria, but that didn’t stop Zaev, who had for years falsely announced the imminent opening of accession talks, from campaigning on the issue.

It is great symbolism that the decision was made on the first day of the German presidency with the European Council, Zaev said.

In addition, he boasted that the move by the Eureopan Commission “makes the Macedonian language an official language of the European Union, and part of the EU laws will be translated into Macedonian”. This can prove to be a major issue in the coming weeks, as Bulgaria considers the Macedonian language to be a mere dialect of the Bulgarian, and wants to prevent it from becoming a separate official language of the EU. Bulgaria insists that the Macedonian language is named “the official language of the Republic of North Macedonia” in all EU materials. A number of media outlets supportive of Zaev leaked the news yesterday that there is a clause in the framework that it will be translated into Macedonian, and declared that this is a major victory for Macedonia over Bulgaria.

The framework is now being sent to the EU member states for approval. There is no response from Bulgaria yet – the Government there has been openly supportive of Zaev in the pre-election period and it is possible that it will not “rock the boat” until July 15.