"Bulgaria has resisted 'incredible pressure' from European partners to approve the start of negotiations for Northern Macedonia's EU membership," Bulgarian President Rumen Radev told reporters in Brussels after the country again blocked Macedonia's attempts to enter the EU a few days ago. The Union. Arriving at the two-day European Council in Brussels, the Bulgarian president said that Bulgaria had succeeded in insisting that the issue of starting negotiations with Skopje and Tirana be removed from today's agenda of EU heads of state and government.

"It is time for everyone to understand that the acceleration of the European perspective for our closest country depends only on the engagement and the results of the dialogue with Bulgaria," Radev said, adding that the topic of starting negotiations between Skopje and the EU was rejected by European leaders at Bulgarian insistence.

As reported by the Bulgarian "Mediapool", Radev complained that for the last month and a half, Bulgaria was under enormous pressure from the European partners of today's European Council to start negotiations for membership in RSM. "The pressure will continue, but we have proved this month and a half that we can be open to constructive dialogue and initiate dialogue at the highest level. "We will not allow our hands to be bent by lobbying, nor by media and political pressure," Radev added.

He said that at the EU summit in May, Bulgaria was in isolation, facing a barrage of accusations of blocking negotiations with RSM and Albania. "The interim government has made great efforts to complete all the years in which our partners have never been able to hear a significant, well-argued Bulgarian position at a high level. "That is why I held many personal meetings and talks with the leaders of the European institutions," he said. Radev's message was indirectly addressed to former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who a week ago accused the head of state and the interim government of "lying to Macedonians that they want their European integration."