After a long dispute, North Macedonia and its EU neighbor Bulgaria have agreed on a timetable for the start of negotiations for North Macedonia’s accession to the European Union. The foreign ministers of the two countries, Teodora Jenchovska and Bujar Osmani, signed a similar protocol today in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
The protocol is said to include approaches and deadlines for resolving the dispute over the interpretation of the date, among other things. According to media reports, textbooks and inscriptions on monuments will be changed. The inclusion of ethnic Bulgarians as an ethnic group should also be regulated in the constitution of North Macedonia. The text of the document is due to be published on Tuesday.
Bulgaria has obstructed the start of EU negotiations with its small neighbor since the end of 2020 due to the conflict that North Macedonia has been waiting for since 2008. It concerns, among other things, the interpretation of partly shared history and ethnic Bulgarian rights in North Macedonia.
The French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which was in office until the end of June, made a compromise proposal. The North Macedonian Parliament in Skopje yesterday approved the framework for accession talks proposed by the European Union Commission.
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