Sofia, January 3 (BTA) – Slavi Trifonov, whose There is Such a People party is part of the government coalition in Bulgaria, suggested in a Facebook post Monday that Sofia can give a green light to the start of accession talks for North Macedonia on condition that Bulgarian people are allowed visa-free entry to the US and Sofia is immediately admitted to Europe’s Schengen agreement for visa-free travel, and also that North Macedonia recognize their Bulgarian roots. “If the US and the European Union want us to be loyal partners, that is fine but then loyalty goes both ways. We will be loyal to them but they need to be loyal to us. That would be right. That would be fair,” wrote Trifonov.

Bulgaria has consistently refused to agree to the start of EU accession talks with Skopje insisting that Skopje should first meet the conditions in its Goodneighbourly Treaty with Sofia, which include ending hate speech against Bulgaria, the distortion of historical facts in school books and elsewhere, and the discrimination against people with Bulgarian self-awareness.

It also transpires from Trifonov’s post that Skopje’s EU aspirations will be on the agenda of a meeting of the Consultative Council on National Security on January 10.

Trifonov, whose party was the largest one in the previous Parliament but failed to form  agovernment, wrote in his post that he has been in North Macedonia once and during that visit there was a “Die, Bulgarians!” inscription sprayed on the wall of a building across the street from the Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje. He says that made him wonder what Bulgaria did wrong to deserve that inscription, all the more so considering that hundreds of thousands of people in North Macedonia have Bulgarian passports and claim to have Bulgarian descent.

“There will be a meeting of the Consultative Council [on National Security] with the President on January 10 to discuss Macedonia – that is, North Macedonia – because they want to become members of the European Union and Bulgaria has been blocking the process and everybody is pressuring us into letting them in. […] The question is, what should we do now, if we want to keep our dignity as Bulgarians,” Trifonov wrote as a prelude to his suggestion of a solution.

“If the US want so much to see North Macedonia in the EU, then Bulgarian people, like the citizens of most EU member states, should be allowed to visit the US without a visa. Bulgaria is a full member of the EU and Bulgarians, as true Europeans, won’t need visas to go to America. Second, again because we are full members of the EU, Bulgaria should be admitted to the Schengen area. Enough waiting, waiting rooms and so on! We are presumably Europeans but not quite. The solution is no visas for the US and immediate entry in the Schengen area,” he wrote.

“On these conditions and provided that North Macedonia meets the conditions in the Treaty of Friendship, Goodneighbourliness and Cooperation, we can start the negotiating process towards Skopje’s entry in the European Union,” says he.

He also wrote that people in North Macedonia "must recognize their historical Bulgarian roots. That is unconditional. It is not subject to negotiations". LN/

Source: Sofia