Skopje, Sofia Deliver Unilateral Statements about Macedonian Language

Upon the start of the first intergovernmental conference between official Skopje and Brussels for the accession in the EU of the former, both North Macedonia and Bulgaria delivered to Brussels their unilateral statements concerning the Macedonian language. The statement of official Skopje contains historical references, explaining that the Macedonian language has pretty long lingual and historical continuity based upon the specific development of the dialects which serve as its base and are spoken on the present-day territory of North Macedonia, that it has been officially codified in 1945, and that it should be represented in all official documents of the EU, like the Frontex contract and others, without any additional footnotes or explanations. The Bulgarian statement on the other hand, writes that any reference to the language in the official documents of the EU must be understood in line with the Constitution of North Macedonia and that such references must not be interpreted as recognition of the language by official Sofia. In meantime, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that she will personally pledge for the Macedonian language to be referred to in the Frontex documents without any additional explanations and definitions.