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North Macedonia's Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, here with Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva
Photo: VASSIL DONEV / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Bulgaria and North Macedonia want to settle their dispute over the assessment of historical events and personalities within a month in order to advance the accession talks between North Macedonia and the EU.
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borissow and North Macedonia's Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani announced after a meeting on Friday that both sides wanted to agree on a compromise before the EU-Western Balkans Summit on November 10.
Osmani called the historical dispute a "dormant hostility that was a legacy of the past" and had to be "overcome".
Borissov said: "Bulgaria recognizes today's political realities. North Macedonia should recognize the historical realities."
Bulgaria had threatened to block the EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia if there was no compromise in the dispute between the two states.
The government in Sofia regards the Macedonian language as a Bulgarian dialect.
The official historiography of both countries is based on the same events and personalities from the Ottoman period.
By changing its name, North Macedonia became a member of NATO
In 2017, the neighboring states agreed to a "friendship treaty" and the creation of a commission consisting mainly of historians to settle the dispute.
After a long break, the expert commission will meet again for the first time next week.
EU enlargement commissioner Olivér Várhelyi called on Bulgaria and North Macedonia on Wednesday to find a solution to the conflict.
Without an agreement, it would be difficult to move forward in the accession negotiations with Skopje, he said in the north Macedonian capital.
Last year, the government in Skopje ended a decade-long name dispute with Greece by changing the official country name of Macedonia to North Macedonia.
The name change was a prerequisite for accession negotiations with the EU, because the EU and NATO member Greece claims the designation "Macedonia" for its own region.
It also made it possible for North Macedonia to join NATO.
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