Bulgaria expects an active high-level bilateral dialogue that will resolve disputed issues in bilateral relations, said Bulgarian President Rumen Radev after meeting with German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Strasbourg, with whom he discussed, among other things, Macedonia's European perspective.

According to Radev, Macedonia should show European maturity and respect for EU values ​​by taking concrete actions to stop the hate speech against Bulgaria in history textbooks, state and scientific institutions and the media. falsifications of the Bulgarian cultural-historical heritage and, in particular, to respect the rights of its citizens who openly express their Bulgarian identity.

These requests are part of the so-called "Roadmap five plus one", which contains six requests that Sofia sent to Skopje and expects a response. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet revealed whether and when the planned meeting of the working groups of the two ministries will take place, which is announced in October, but has been postponed due to the elections in both countries. The Foreign Ministry's lack of transparency on the issue in the sensitive period leading up to the EU summit on December 14 has fueled public skepticism about how far negotiations can go, especially after Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi said negotiations would begin by March at the latest, with optimism based on information and to the "comfortable answers that Skopje has prepared for the requests from Sofia".

Bulgarian Ambassador to Macedonia Angel Angelov also said yesterday that confidential talks between the two countries have never stopped.

- The talks continue, they have never stopped and are conducted confidentially between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs. I hope we will get a new government. Tomorrow is the first session of the new Parliament of Bulgaria and we hope that the new political government will reach an agreement with the Government of Northern Macedonia. We should let the government be formed, because there are seven political parties in the Parliament and it is very difficult to reach a solution. So, I hope that first we will elect a government so that a solution can be reached - said Angelov, when asked during a visit to Stip to overcome the bilateral dispute and whether the Bulgarian side will have a new approach in the talks.

Bulgaria's approach since last December, when it blocked the negotiating framework for Macedonia, has undergone several changes. The demands for the Macedonian identity, history and language from the summer left the primacy of the demands for respecting the rights of the Macedonian citizens with Bulgarian self-awareness, and the formulation "Roadmap five plus one" was promoted at the EU-Western Balkans Summit on October 6 by Radev , but also by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Layen. Then Radev said that a condition for unblocking is for Macedonia to include the Bulgarian minority in the Constitution and thus guarantee their rights, as well as to have legal guarantees in the negotiating framework that all points of the Roadmap will be met.

The six demands from Sofia to Skopje are: a statement that we have no territorial claims against them with an explanation of the short and long constitutional name of the country, an obligation not to interfere in the internal affairs of Bulgaria regarding the Macedonian minority there that Sofia does not recognize, agreement historical commission to meet at least five times a year, condemning the acts of communism that condemned those who identified themselves as Bulgarians and their rehabilitation, preventing hate speech and inserting Bulgarians in the Macedonian Constitution.

After the summit, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said that all six demands are logical, acceptable and an agreement can be reached on them, and the change of the Constitution can happen before the full membership of RS Macedonia in the EU.

Angelov: Bulgaria does not recognize minorities like France

Bulgaria does not recognize minorities in its Constitution, said yesterday the Bulgarian Ambassador to Macedonia, Angel Angelov.

- Bulgaria does not recognize minorities in the Constitution, like France. All citizens are equal before the law, ie we do not recognize collective rights. Everyone has the individual right to feel as they please and we can not forbid that, nor the right to associate. "There is another unfounded thesis that we have never claimed that there is a Bulgarian minority in the Republic of Northern Macedonia," said the ambassador.

Answering a question about the 16 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights for violation of the rights of association of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, for the denial of the Macedonian minority, as well as Sofia's insistence on respecting the rights of the Bulgarian minority in Macedonia.

He says Bulgaria's biggest problem is that RS Macedonia is not fulfilling the Good Neighbor Agreement.