Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said on the “Kontrakomentar” show that Bulgaria, as an EU member, continues to support the European perspective of the Western Balkan countries.

Zaharieva stressed that the claims that Bulgaria is entering “Belgrade” and “foreign scenarios”, stopping Macedonia on its path to EU membership, are totally not true.

She said that three years ago after the end of the Bulgaria’s EU presidency, the presidencies after them felt obliged to continue that priority and that is becoming their priority.

Colleagues from Austria, Croatia, Romania, Portugal and Germany, and now Slovenia, have announced they will address the issue, including the Czech Republic, which will held the rotating presidency after 18 months. We are not happy that we had to say “no”, but we cannot tolerate what is happening there (Macedonia), said Zaharieva.

Regarding the positions of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and German Minister of State for Europe, that EU enlargement should not become a hostage of bilateral disputes and Bulgarian policy towards Macedonia, Zaharieva said that unresolved issues should be resolved first and that Bulgaria will not make compromise with its national interests.

According to Zaharieva, the Bulgarian government has not reacted officially to the reintroduction of teaching of the Serbian language in schools in Macedonian because it is an internal matter.