“We have reached a compromise with Bulgaria in which both sides are equally happy and equally unhappy. The compromise was difficult to achieve, “Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov told TV 24 tonight.
“The public will have insight and will get the time to debate the agreement on good neighborly relations with Bulgaria. Never since the independence of Macedonia since 1991, we have not had so much visible involvement of the Parliament and the opposition in such a thing. Constitutional procedures say that there is a negotiating team, negotiating, aligning the text and passing through the government, signing and then becoming an agreement and going to ratification in the Assembly. And here is a lot of time, both for the public and for the opposition, “the Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov told TV 24 tonight.
He added that it is primarily a draft text and will become an agreement when it gets the signatures of both parties.
“And secondly. There is a great hypocrisy here. That agreement is negotiated the text itself and is well known to the opposition because they negotiated it for 5-6 years. We negotiate 50 days or actively 30 days. The need for this agreement is the result of the bad relations that we had with Bulgaria. I do not want to accuse anyone, but the fact is that because of the deteriorating relations, there has been a need for a friendship agreement.
Third, what is the national interest of the Republic of Macedonia? Will Bulgaria stop us or it will support us. If we can make Bulgaria a big supporter of our integration, should we do it or not? The agreement will not be a surprise when it is signed, even for those who negotiated it for six years, but for the public, because in large part the basis is the declaration (negotiated by the previous government), “the minister said.
Asked why the deal with Bulgaria is not given to the public to see him, he says “there is no statutory and constitutional provision for an open session, and especially when you have an opposition that gives signals that this is about to demolish it.”
Commenting on the remarks of ex-Foreign Minister Antonio Milošoski for this agreement, Dimitrov said that this agreement also includes “Macedonian language” and that this agreement does not jeopardize the national interest of Macedonia:
“The state’s interest in Macedonia is to make a friend from Bulgaria in a dignified way.”
“It’s very hypocritical,” he added, “those who created the need to have such an agreement, to be now the main reviewers and critics,” Dimitrov said.
