SDSM leader Zoran Zaev confirmed today that Bulgaria has blocked the opening of EU accession talks with Macedonia. At the meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels today, the Bulgarian ambassador rejected a proposal from Germany, which holds the EC rotating presidency, to accept a negotiating framework.
We have the first blockade from Bulgaria. Today article 2 of the Friendship treaty was violated. We did not violate it before with anything we did. This is the first unpleasant feeling. We need to be smart and resolve the dispute in a friendly manner. Today a not so friendly message was sent to us from neighboring Bulgaria and the first step was blocked. Article 2 of the treaty states that Bulgaria should support us on our road to EU integration, Zaev said.
This is a major defeat for Zaev’s policy to ensure Macedonia’s accession into EU and NATO by making endless concessions to nationalist demands from Bulgaria and Greece. Macedonia did join NATO, after the painful concessions of the Prespa treaty with Greece, but for the bulk of the population, which did not support the imposed name change in the 2018 referendum, the main silver lining was the possible EU membership and its economic perks, not joining NATO. Now this prospect, however distant, got even further away from the country.
