North Macedonia's Foreign Minister: It was a Mistake Not Including the Bulgarians in the Constitution

"We started membership negotiations with the EU from the day of the first intergovernmental conference, but we will not be able to open chapter 23 if we do not change the constitution," noted the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, Bujar Osmani.

"We will finish the screening, but we cannot open Chapter 23 if we do not change the Constitution, and this is a compromise decision because the position of the Republic of Bulgaria until the last moment was firm that there is no start of negotiations without these constitutional changes. And we didn't accept that. We rejected the solution proposed by the Bulgarians - to start negotiations and screening, and in the meantime to change the constitution", Osmani said during his guest appearance on Channel 5's "Hot Political Summer" program today.

He emphasized that the amendment of the constitution implies the inclusion of the Croatian, Montenegrin and Bulgarian communities along with the other six communities that are already listed in the text of the constitutional preamble. When asked if he feared that a two-thirds majority might not be secured for the changes to the constitution, Osmani emphasized that during the talks with Bulgaria he communicated with representatives of the Macedonian opposition and did not hear from any party an argument against the inclusion of the Bulgarians in the Constitution.

"The inclusion of Bulgarians in our Constitution is good and is in the interest of the Macedonians, the Macedonian people and the Republic of North Macedonia because for the first time the relationship between the Macedonian majority and the Bulgarian minority community is institutionally defined. For the first time in the history of the relationship, we are...