Bulgaria has deployed “all available resources and established channels” to safeguard its national interests and used back-channel diplomacy to urge international partners to show restraint and adopt a constructive approach toward North Macedonia’s EU accession, Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev said on Tuesday.
Speaking in response to a parliamentary question from MP Elisaveta Belobradova, Georgiev said the foreign ministry shared the concerns publicly raised by Bulgarian Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) about a possible compromise to the integrity of the European Parliament’s (EP) draft report on North Macedonia’s progress.
“Including concerns over the alleged unlawful leaking of internal parliamentary information to a third party and unregulated lobbying between EP representatives and officials from Skopje,” Georgiev told lawmakers, according to Bulgarian media reports.
Tensions between Sofia and Skopje have escalated in recent weeks after Bulgarian MEPs successfully called for a delay in the EP vote on the draft report, citing what they described as unacceptable references to Macedonian identity and language, and alleged information leaks to Skopje.
The delayed report is understood to include multiple references recognizing the Macedonian identity and language—formulations Bulgarian MEPs have rejected.
“Such unregulated actions only serve to fuel the escalating nationalist rhetoric of North Macedonia’s prime minister,” Georgiev said. “For the foreign ministry and our diplomatic missions abroad, advocating for the strict application of the European consensus remains a top priority.”
The minister stressed that international law does not provide for the recognition of identity or language, and such matters fall outside the scope of the EU’s Copenhagen criteria for membership or enlargement provisions.
“Terms such as ‘recognition of Macedonian identity’ and ‘recognition of the Macedonian language’ are not legal categories subject to international recognition, nor are they components of the accession criteria,” he said.
“In the context of North Macedonia’s government unilaterally obstructing progress in the EU accession process, Bulgaria underscores the need to avoid actions that could create new obstacles,” Georgiev added.