North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Explained why Skopje Opposes the "French Proposal"

The Foreign Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, expressed the position that the vote in the Bulgarian Parliament today will block the long-term European enlargement process and paralyze the Good Neighbour Agreement between the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria.

In a Facebook post, Osmani explained why the French presidency's proposal was rejected. "Two words stand between the success and failure of the European Union in the region", writes Bujar Osmani and explains that these are - "the first is a protocol in the negotiating framework, and the second is an 'opening' in paragraph 6 of the Council conclusions", BNR reported.

"A vote on the resolution in the Bulgarian parliament, which focuses on these two issues, will block the European process in the long run and at the same time will paralyze the instruments of the long-term friendship treaty", Bujar Osmani wrote.

"We had to reject a proposal for a negotiating framework in this form precisely because of the parts of it, for which the Bulgarian side without any arguments showed misunderstanding", said the Foreign Minister.

At a joint press conference with Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Marichic, Bujar Osmani said that first Skopje should see what the Bulgarian National Assembly voted for and see the final proposal of the French presidency:

"So far we have had a working version, in which there are some undefined issues, such as the issue of protocol, which we see as a paradigm of historical interpretations. I think that if there is political will, solutions can be found in the next few days."

Follow Novinite.com on Twitter and Facebook

Write to us at editors...