Bulgarian president hints at rethink over backing Serbia’s EU membership

3 months ago 12

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has hinted that Sofia may reassess support for Serbia’s EU membership because of how Belgrade treats the Bulgarian minority in the country.

“The main criterion by which we will judge and give support to the progress of the Western Balkan countries is precisely the situation of our compatriots in each country – their conditions for economic and social development and, above all, their ability to defend their national identity, language, culture and historical memory,” Radev explained.

Three years ago, in a much-criticised move, Bulgaria vetoed North Macedonia’s EU accession process, accusing the government in Skopje of generating hate speech against Bulgarians. The inclusion of the Bulgarian minority in the North Macedonian constitution remains the only formal obstacle to the start of the country’s EU membership negotiations, but it remains out of reach due to a lack of consensus on the measure in the country.

Radev’s term as president ends in 2027, after which political experts predict that he will become a major player in Bulgaria’s parliament.

“I will continue to be personally committed, as well as Vice President Iliana Yotova, for the Bulgarian institutions to work actively for a consolidated and clear national Bulgarian position and policy to support all our compatriots abroad. I will continue to work actively with the Serbian state leadership to solve the problems of our compatriots in the western suburbs,” Radev said.

On Wednesday, the president awarded the highest state award, the Order of Stara Planina, to Ivan Nikolov, chairman of the Cultural Information Centre in the Serbian city of Bosilegrad and one of the most active representatives of the Bulgarian minority in Serbia.

During the ceremony, Nikolov said that the ideology of the authorities in Belgrade was leading to repression against the Bulgarian minority.

“An ideology that even today shells, burns and searches Bulgarian cultural and information centres, that takes away Bulgarian books, conducts lawsuits and subjects people who defend their national and human dignity to violence, persecution and wiretapping,” Nikolov said.

He called for more solidarity and “an even more categorical and consistent Bulgarian position in defence of the Bulgarian minority not only in Belgrade and Brussels but also in Sofia”.

The Bulgarian president pointed out that Bulgaria was the key driving force behind the EU accession of the Western Balkan countries “because we are aware of how important this integration is for the security, stability and sustainable economic development of the region, but we stand firmly on the principle of our own merits in this integration process so that it is sustainable and irreversible.”

In December, 12 of 17 Bulgarian MEPs from all political groups, except five from the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party, warned EU institutions in an open letter about the “violation of rights and incitement of hatred towards the Bulgarian minority in Serbia”.

The letter was addressed to the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Council, the Council of Europe and ambassadors just before the EU-Western Balkans meeting.

The letter stresses that there is a constant flow of hate speech against the Bulgarian minority in Serbian public space, provoked by the institutions, which creates difficult living conditions for Bulgarians in Serbia.

“Serbia should not be judged only by its words, but only by the actions it takes, which should be in line with European values and human rights, including those in defence of minorities,” the MEPs wrote in the letter.

They warned that “the generation of hatred in Serbian society against Bulgaria and therefore against the EU, is mostly in favour of the Kremlin”.

“The teaching of the Bulgarian language is restricted, the preservation of the Bulgarian cultural heritage is prevented in every way, the falsification of history from the time of (late leader Josip Broz) Tito’s Yugoslavia continues, religious services in Bulgarian are not allowed, political, civil and environmental organisations and their activists are persecuted,” the MEPs added.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, which maintains close ties with Moscow, has also been accused of creating anti-Bulgarian sentiment in the post-2008 period.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)