Greece in a way had initiated EU’s promise to the region at the 2003 summit, but Greece now has been acting normally, as any country should in the region, after settling the dispute we’d had with them. EU member countries in the region will benefit the most if the European story succeeds – they’ll get friends, predictability and allies, said Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov.
Dimitrov will be in Thessaloniki on Wednesday to attend a special conference on the region titled “The Western Balkans joins the dialogue on the future of Europe”, organized by Greek Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs MiltiadisVarvitsiotis.
“This event takes place at a time when the promise has been weakened, diplomatically speaking. A lot of people, even the governments in the Balkans aren’t convinced anymore that the EU is serious and sincere when talking about the European perspective of the Balkan countries. We will have the chance to discuss this in Thessaloniki,” the Deputy PM told a TV show.
Asked about the alleged non-paper, Dimitrov said the document was sent to him by a journalist asking him “what it is and is it credible.” He called it “Balkan scam.”
“I’ve read many non-papers and documents… The approach to the Macedonian-Bulgarian issue in the past two years is far from reality. I made a few phone calls and it’s clear someone is promoting some kind of an idea, they must be from the region. Bulgaria is heading toward elections, we’ll have local elections, perhaps it is some kind of local ‘scam’ to stir thing up to score some political points maybe. However, it’s all speculation,” he said.
Asked about the country’s relations with Bulgaria, Dimitrov said there’s deadlock because Bulgaria is about to hold both early parliamentary elections and presidential elections as well.
“There are contacts between diplomats, experts at working level. After all, we are neighbors, but we have no political interlocutor there. We should wait for the Bulgarian people to decide in the elections,” Dimitrov said.
