The opposing stances held by North Macedonia and Bulgaria recently, were also manifested in the commemoration of the two brothers Cyril and Methodius, the two orthodox saints, founders of the Slavic alphabet, which despite slight modifications, is used in both countries.
Bulgaria accepts the new Macedonian identity and the Macedonian language, which as they claim was created after 1945, whereas before this period, Sofia claims they had Bulgarian roots.
“North Macedonia’s road to the EU passes through Sofia. We need to sit down with each other and sincerely discuss regarding the resolution of our bilateral issues,” declared the President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev. In November of last year, Bulgaria used its influence to veto and block the accession of negotiations talks for the membership of North Macedonia to the EU.
The Bulgarian president has previously stated that the dispute with Skopje has awoken a great interest amongst EU member state, without mentioning the word pressure.
“We will call on EU member states for solidarity. The most important thing is to not let new problems enter the Union,” said the Bulgarian president, Rumen Radev, who just like the Macedonian President, will be travelling to Rome, Italy on May 26th and 27th to participate in the celebrations in honor of this day.
In the meantime, PM Zaev is expecting presidents Radev and Pendarovski to meet in Rome, this Wednesday in order to take a step forward regarding overcoming their bilateral differences.
Zaev is optimistic that the willingness from both sides as well as Portugal’s proposal will lead both countries towards a resolution, however, he didn’t give any details regarding this proposal.
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