The Bulgarian authorities are conducting a preliminary investigation against Vesela Cherneva the foreign affairs adviser to the former prime minister of Bulgaria, Kiril Petkov, for providing sensitive information about Sofia's position on North Macedonia's entry into the EU, said the head of the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security (DANS), Plamen Tonchev.

In response to a question from the member of the nationalist party Prerodba "whether information was released about the negotiation process of the Republic of North Macedonia and about the steps taken by the Bulgarian state", Tonchev in the Bulgarian Parliament, without mentioning the name of Cherneva, stated that a case had been initiated about the fact that "the prime minister's adviser at the time coordinated the views of the MFA with a citizen of the Republic of North Macedonia".

- I will not be able to answer in detail, because a pre-investigation procedure has been initiated, answered Tonchev.

According to him, some ministers from the then Bulgarian Government "definitely did not protect the national interest" of Bulgaria. These are not the first accusations against Cherneva regarding the country.

The former head of the Bulgarian diplomacy Teodora Gencovska on one occasion he accused Cherneva of "leading a parallel foreign policy" and of "lobbying in the negotiations with Skopje".

After the suspicions surrounding Cherneva, the head of Macedonian diplomacy, were disclosed, Bujar Osmani, in statement about "360 degrees" said that in the talks with Cherneva, who was an advisor to the former Bulgarian Prime Minister Petkov, the smallest step forward was made in Macedonian-Bulgarian relations.

"With Vesela Cherneva, as an adviser to the Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, we conducted the most difficult negotiations," says Osmani.

Petkov's cabinet was in power from December 2021 to August 2022.