Osmani: The positions with Bulgaria are now clearer, I hope we will reach a solution

Bujar Osmani photo Archive

"I can not say that this second cycle will be 100 percent successful, but we are entering honestly and dedicatedly to find a solution because the European perspective is important for the general progress," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Bujar Osmani for the new process of negotiations with Bulgaria, which he said was intensified after the intergovernmental session in Sofia, which was held after three consecutive elections in Bulgaria, the elections in our country and the new governments in both countries.

Speaking on Kanal 5 TV's "Only Interview" show, Osmani said the two governments had agreed to start "a new dynamic of a process with a platform to restore trust through frequent communication and co-operation".

- We will learn from the mistakes and experiences from the first cycle which started well, had results with the Good Neighbor Agreement and was a great achievement in bilateral relations. We hope that in this second cycle, which we are starting now, we will crown it positively in the interest of the European perspective of the region, of course the bilateral cooperation, said Osmani, adding that the established working groups will help, the focus will be the future which will make it easier to solve the challenges.

Short-term cycles and meetings are set weekly - on February 1 there will be a meeting of the economic group, on February 7 - the group for infrastructure, for European integration on the 14th and on February 21 the educational working group. The Committee on Historical and Educational Issues will meet every five weeks, and after a few months, as a cross-section of their work, there will be a joint session of the two governments again.

- If there is no agreement, the same challenges will remain. Our positions are clear. We have been negotiating for over a year and the positions have crystallized from both us and them. I think the positions are clearer than it was a year or six months ago. We were with distant positions, now we have a certain framework and I hope we will reach a certain solution. There is more understanding of each other's positions. We will give a chance to the process. The negotiation process has started and we will continue to inform the public, said the Foreign Minister.

He said that he has said many times about the 5 + 1 package and nothing is hidden, and that what is not presented as a document, he said, is because they are working versions that are exchanged as non-papers and are not published until then.

- At a moment when a formulation that is mutually acceptable to both parties, the MPs, the President and the public will be informed first, and then our decision will be given. The thesis is that interests are sold secretly, that is not the case, the negotiation system is not set that way. The citizens should be calm, the opposition imposes fear that it is being done secretly. That is not true, before any decision, they will be transparently informed, said Osmani, adding that he has nothing against being in Parliament, but he believed that it should remain within the framework of the Good Neighbor Agreement of 2017.

Tomorrow, Osmani will inform the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs about the course of the talks and the overall relations between the Republic of Northern Macedonia and the Republic of Bulgaria. The session will be open to the public, at his request, because, he said, "there is nothing to hide from the citizens."

He stressed that he never refused an invitation from a commission, regardless of the attitude of the chairman of the commission towards him, because he considers it as an attitude towards the Parliament and the citizens and as a duty to give an account for the work.

An agreement in principle with the Bulgarian government, he said, to meet every five weeks with the Commission for History and Education because continuous meetings are important.

"They have been meeting online lately, I understand the limitations of the pandemic, but they need to meet more often with physical encounters, but without raising expectations for the results," Osmani said, adding that they analyzed their work and concluded that it was proportionate. and coincided with the political environment in both countries.

He believes that freshness should be introduced in the commission, in which two members were replaced and in which year and a half, he said, there was no result from their work. By changing the political environment, he expects more results.

He stressed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not interfere in the work of the Commission and does not want the public to think that he or the Government decides on the work of the Commission, but provides logistical support and covers the costs of their meetings.

Regarding the changes in the textbooks, the Commission gives the recommendations and for some historical periods they have been adopted.

"We do not want to publish them unilaterally, but together with the Bulgarian government there will be a moment when the agreed texts will be published and that will encourage the commission and will affect the overall climate between the two countries," Osmani added.

He announced that he would go to Paris on February 2 with Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Maricic and from there to Brussels in order to explain the new approach with Bulgaria so that they could see if it could fit into the plan for the French presidency.

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