Bulgarian Member of the European Parliament Angel Dzhambazki, has written a letter to his MEP colleagues and to German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, reacting to the resolution adopted by North Macedonia’s Parliament on July 29 which set out the so-called red lines in the talks with Bulgaria on Macedonian identity and language in the context of the Western Balkan country’s EU accession negotiations.
If these ‘red lines’ are observed, the Joint Commission simply cannot function, Dzhambazki argued, referring to the Joint Multidisciplinary Commission of Experts on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, established under the bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation, signed on Aug. 1, 2017.
“It the Commission was initially intended to address open issues related to history, culture, identity and language. Right from the outset, however, the Macedonian side has repeatedly boycotted that Commission because it is unable to present sufficiently reliable evidence, based on primary and secondary historical sources, to support their allegations,” the MEP wrote.
