Skopje/Sofia, 05 December 2025, dtt-net.com – Bulgaria President Rumen Radev reiterated country’s position that North Macedonia needs to include Bulgarian community in its Constitution which would clear the way for Skopje to open EU membership negotiations. “The inclusion of Bulgarians in the RSM constitution will significantly accelerate the country's path to the EU and I hope that our southwestern neighbour will do this as soon as possible in order to open the door to negotiations for full membership,” Radev was quoted as saying during a meeting of yesterday in Sofia with Bulgarian community in North Macedonia, representatives of organizations from the cities of Bitola, Ohrid, Skopje, Prilep, Kavadarci and Kochani, respectively.
Skopje/Sofia, 05 December 2025, dtt-net.com – Bulgaria President Rumen Radev reiterated country’s position that North Macedonia needs to include Bulgarian community in its Constitution which would clear the way for Skopje to open EU membership negotiations.
“The inclusion of Bulgarians in the RSM constitution will significantly accelerate the country’s path to the EU and I hope that our southwestern neighbour will do this as soon as possible in order to open the door to negotiations for full membership,” Radev was quoted as saying during a meeting of yesterday in Sofia with Bulgarian community in North Macedonia, representatives of organizations from the cities of Bitola, Ohrid, Skopje, Prilep, Kavadarci and Kochani, respectively.
This was stated by the Head of State Rumen Radev at a meeting at the presidential
“We all hope that the integration of the RSM will happen as soon as possible, but this cannot be at the expense of the rights of the Bulgarian community in the country,” reads a press release from his office.
In 2022 Bulgaria convinced other 26 EU member countries to condition opening of membership negotiations with North Macedonia with inclusion of Bulgarian community in its Constitution.
The previous SDSM-led government in Skopje had agreed to the demand, but it had no sufficient votes in the 120-seat parliament to make the changes.
The conservative Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski and his VMRO-DPMNE party say that there will be no change of country’s Constitution to include Bulgarian community unless the European bloc and Bulgaria guarantee formally that there will be no new conditions set to Skopje.
Majority of Macedonians fear that Bulgaria would make with new conditions during EU accession negotiations, as Sofia does not recognize Macedonian language and treats it as a derivate of Bulgarian language. The two countries have also disputes over history books.
