"We are always open to talks with North Macedonia, but talks without ultimatums and without backing down from EU policy." That's what president Rumen Radev...
Wait, let me redo this properly."We are always open to talks with North Macedonia, but talks without ultimatums and without backing down from EU policy." President Iliana Yotova told reporters in Blagoevgrad, responding to a note from North Macedonia's prime minister Hristijan Mickoski calling for a bilateral meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers.
Yotova was in Blagoevgrad for the 114th anniversary of the liberation of Gorna Dzhumaya, as the town was once known.
The idea for such a meeting came from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who suggested it to Skopje. "I very much hope she was extremely firm this time," Yotova said. She added that she still has no details of the one-on-one talk between Mickoski and von der Leyen, and pointed out that Skopje has received advice from such high EU levels before.
Yotova will discuss the note itself with foreign minister Velislava Petrova, and wants to see its exact wording.
For any talks to be taken seriously, Mickoski must understand the EU's enlargement policy and stop treating the issue as a bilateral one, Yotova said. She argued that Bulgaria, as a full EU member, cannot accept a country on the path to membership refusing to follow the bloc's values.
A resolution to the case of Iva Mihajlova should come before anything else, the president said, noting the case has already reached the highest European and global institutions. Yotova said she personally sent a letter to North Macedonia's president Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, but has had no reply for three months now, which is why she doubts Skopje's sincerity. She called for Bulgaria to remain cautiously optimistic.
The European Commission's report on North Macedonia's progress toward EU membership is due within two weeks.