Bulgaria Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, has said that the ‘Friendship Treaty’ was offered to Macedonia to help speed up the country’s accession to the EU.

Mladenov, speaking on BNR Saturday during his tour of the Balkans, said that Bulgaria had reached out its hand to Macedonia with a desire to work together and to be a good example of neighborly relations in the region.

Mladenov added; “the treaty is not a condition for Macedonian membership of the EU but it may help them.” He continued that EU negotiations had not yet started with Macedonia mainly because of their name dispute with Greece.

Regarding Serbia, Mladenov said that it is not certain whether the EU will offer them membership this year and he also pushed Belgrade to recognize Kosovo and continue internal reforms in their bid to join the bloc.

In February 2010, after information was leaked to the Macedonian media, the Bulgarian government confirmed that a Friendship Treaty had been offered to Macedonia back in 2008.

Political circles in Skopje put forth the notion that Bulgaria was setting conditions on Macedonia with respect to its EU and NATO integration, similarly to Greece, which has blocked Macedonia’s accession to the organizations because of the notorious name dispute between the two countries.

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