SOFIA – With 170 votes “in favour, “Bulgarian Parliament accepted a proposal to give the Council of Ministers a mandate to accept the French Presidency’s proposal for lifting the veto on North Macedonia, Euractiv reported.
The French proposal envisions Bulgaria’s conditions becoming a part of the Macedonian negotiation framework, with the EU and the European Commission being the guarantor of their implementation.
After the meeting with EU leaders, the Prime Minister of North Macedonia announced that the French proposal to recognize the minority in a preamble to the constitution was “unacceptable “.
This proposal is the first step toward obtaining the green light to lift the veto and start negotiations between North Macedonia and the EU.
Now the proposal must be accepted by the Council of Ministers, which will send it to Brussels.
The National Assembly set the following conditions: refinement of the text of the Council’s conclusion to ensure the inclusion of the Bulgarians in the constitution; improvement of the proposals since nothing in the negotiation process can be interpreted as Bulgaria’s recognition of the existence of the Macedonian language; guarantees that good neighbourliness remains a horizontal criterion throughout the negotiation process.
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