Skopje, 19 August 2023 (MIA) - Experience shows that time is not in our favour when we are outside the process. The longer we wait, more and more questions will arise, which will only complicate the process and strengthen Bulgaria's position. Let us not allow ourselves to complicate the process when the path is now clearly set before us, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj said in an interview with racin.mk.

“The agreement was not reached under "Bulgarian dictate.” On the contrary, we have reached an agreement with which we have gained the maximum and which we have negotiated in our favour, with which we have managed to put in one framework the requirements and obligations of both sides, Macedonian and Bulgarian,” he added.

He noted that our negotiating framework protects the Macedonian language and identity, with which, he said, we managed to prevent Bulgarian issues from becoming European and from questioning the European future of North Macedonia.

“The obligations are described in the negotiating framework, and they are the obligations that we have accepted to achieve the strategic goal by 2030, which is full membership in the EU. Our main demands in the agreement have been fulfilled and therefore there is not a single argument that the amendment to the Macedonian Constitution should be called a Bulgarian dictate - no, it is a European proposal and behind such a proposal the whole EU will never stand together again because there are turbulent processes in the Union and European elections next year,” Marichikj said.

He is confident that there won't be a better framework. - The whole EU tells us that, we know it ourselves, and anyone who says otherwise does not want to see our country in the EU. A better agreement than the one we have cannot be achieved, with this one we are in a favourable position from which our national interests can be easily and painlessly emphasized, and the European perspective guaranteed, he underlined.

Our European friends, senior officials from EU member states, diplomats in the country, MEPs have told VMRO-DPMNE many times that the negotiating framework cannot be renegotiated and that a new agreement is not possible, Marichikj said.

He said that there can be no renegotiation of the framework, which was already agreed and adopted last year, at the first Intergovernmental Conference, and we cannot change it.

“Even if we imagine that it is possible, it will not be better than this one, because neither the atmosphere nor the circumstances are the same now, and Bulgaria's demands will certainly not be the same. We need to be honest and realistic that we have no other option than this one, which allows us to realize the undertaken obligations on a reciprocal basis, with mutual understanding, tolerance and reasonable compromises, which do not encroach on our history and identity issues,” Marichikj added.