The EU ambassadors’ meeting did not bring progress in Bulgaria’s positions on accepting the negotiating framework with Macedonia, the outcome will depend on the bilateral talks between Skopje and Sofia.
“Nothing has changed in the Bulgarian position,” was the reaction of EU diplomats this afternoon after the end of the ambassadors’ meeting in Brussels on the adoption of the negotiating framework for Macedonia.
The Bulgarian ambassador to the EU has stated the same position on the points that are unacceptable for his country and because of which he cannot give the green light for the adoption of the negotiating framework.
The rest of the ambassadors see no reason to return to this issue in the next meetings until there is progress at the bilateral level between Macedonia and Bulgaria, the EU Council briefed.
Contacts have been intense, EU diplomats say, as have attempts by the German presidency and EU Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi to mediate the dispute, to reach a compromise that would allow the first intergovernmental conference between EU and Macedonia to take place by the end of this year and thus open the first negotiating chapters.
