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Bulgarian foreign minister says dispute with North Macedonia won't be resolved during French EU presidency

Bulgarian foreign minister says dispute with North Macedonia won't be resolved during French EU presidency
Sofia, 1 June 2022 (MIA) — The Bulgarian dispute with the Republic of North Macedonia cannot be resolved during the French presidency of the Council of the EU, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska said Wednesday before a meeting of the Bulgarian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. After last week's meeting with the leaders of the government coalition, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Kiril Petkov cabinet said they "were relying" on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Genchovska said, but according to her "the Prime Minister's teams continue to sabotage the process in various ways." "They are holding talks with our EU partners,” the Bulgarian foreign minister said. “We are trying to conduct these talks in a purely professional way, but we learned from the sidelines that the prime minister's advisers were also holding parallel talks," she noted. Commenting on the possibility of Petkov "sidestepping" the Foreign Ministry over the issue of North Macedonia, Genchovska said there was "no way" it could be bypassed. Asked whether the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry should prepare a report on the progress in relations between the two countries, the Bulgarian foreign minister said it could happen if the Bulgarian President convened the National Security Advisory Council and requested this report from the Ministry. mr/