Reactions to Protocol between Skopje and Sofia Continue

Rapporteur in the European Parliament for North Macedonia MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk said that the intergovernmental protocol between Skopje and Sofia and the start of the EU accession talks for the former benefits both sides and the EU. “It is senseless to look for winners and losers in these long talks. Ture, the Good-Neighbourliness Agreement from 2017 opened certain problems, but it also gave opportunities for a complex dialogue for overcoming these problems from the past. We have signed those agreements based upon the Constitutions of Bulgaria and of North Macedonia. Negating someone’s identity and language in the 21^st century is unsustainable and un-European behaviour,” Kyuchyuk said. Slovenian Ambassador in Skopje Milan Predan said that 26 out of 27 EU member-states recognise the Macedonian language, henceforth it will become part of the EU and its functioning. “All who are conducting the EU membership negotiations may face certain obstacles on their way, by one or another member-state,” Predan said. Albanian PM Edi Rama stated that the behaviour of Bulgaria towards North Macedonia over the past period has been utterly shameful, and that it only resulted in greater drifts between the countries, instead of bringing them closer together. Former Deputy PM for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov said that the first intergovernmental conference of Skopje and Brussels on Tuesday will be nothing more but political folklore. “They will go to Brussels, they will state they started the accession talks, and that would be it. When they come back to Skopje, they will boast around that they started the negotiations, which is good enough to strengthen their political ground, while Official Sofia got all they wanted, and they will now dictate our history,” Dimitrov says.