North Macedonia has fulfilled all the democratic conditions to open EU accession talks, but it is constantly being “kicked” around, said President Zoran Milanovic on Thursday after Sofia criticised his statements about Bulgaria’s policy on that EU membership aspirant.

According to Milanović “that country and that nation have paid a fairly big price until now.  They are playing an exemplary game according to the rules. They have fulfilled all the democratic conditions that anyone can imagine. It is a multinational community and has a sizable Albanian community and that cooperation is exemplary,” he added. 

The president recalled that the former Yugoslav republic had “ceded to Greek demands to add the adjective North to its name Macedonia.” 

“They were finally accepted in the society of dead poets and now this condition truly enters into intimate space,” said Milanović, adding that the country falls victim to a lack of interest and elementary empathy. 

“That should not be done in the 21st century. That is not the basis for a coexistence tomorrow in the European Union,” Milanović concluded.

“Bulgaria remains open to direct, pragmatic dialogue with Macedonia to restore trust between the two countries and intensify bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest,” Bulgarian Ambassador Angel Angelov told Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani in Skopje on Thursday, according to a press release from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The two interlocutors welcomed the joint trip of the presidents of Bulgaria and Macedonia, Rumen Radev and Stevo Pendarovski, who together will pay tribute to the work of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius in Rome.  /Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr