Bulgaria–North Macedonia relations

Bulgaria–North Macedonia relations refers to the bilateral relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia. Both countries are members of the Council of Europe, and NATO. Bulgaria is member of the European Union. North Macedonia is attempting to join the EU since 2004 (the EU government officially gave its permission to enter accession talks in March 2020)

Bulgaria–North Macedonia relations

Bulgaria	North Macedonia

North Macedonia and Bulgaria have complicated neighbourly relations. On January 15, 1992 Bulgaria was the first country to recognize the independence of the then-Republic of Macedonia.[1] Bulgaria has however refused to recognise the existence of a separate ethnic Macedonian nation[2][3][4] and a separate Macedonian language. It argues that the ethnic Macedonians are a subgroup of the Bulgarian nation,[5][6][7] and that the Macedonian language is a dialect of Bulgarian.[8][9] This leads to some complications when signing treaties between these countries—they are signed with this long phrase in the end: "done in the official languages of the two states—Bulgarian language, according to the Constitution of Bulgaria and Macedonian language, according to the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia".[10]

North Macedonia has generally good relations with Bulgaria in the political, economic, and military spheres. The governments of the two countries work to improve business relations. Bulgaria supports their neighbour's bid to enter the EU and NATO. Bulgaria has also donated tanks, artillery, and other military technology to the Army of North Macedonia.

The rules governing good neighbourly relations agreed between Bulgaria and North Macedonia were set in the Joint Declaration of February 22, 1999 reaffirmed by a joint memorandum signed on January 22, 2008 in Sofia.[11]

Reacting to the publication of a controversial[12][13][14][15][16] encyclopedia by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) in 2009, Bulgaria warned that "it is unacceptable for a country aspirant for NATO and EU membership to resort to terminology typical for the ideology of the Cold War era," and that the encyclopedia "gives no contribution to strengthening of the neighborly relations and curbing down of the 'hatred speech'."[17]

In connection with the administrative, police and other types of pressure allegedly being exercised on citizens of Bulgaria and citizens of North Macedonia with Bulgarian self-identification in North Macedonia, on August 4, 2009 the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry declared that "Bulgaria will examine the approach of the Macedonian side in such cases as one of the criteria on the basis of which to assess the country's readiness to make the changes that would allow the European integration of the Republic of North Macedonia."[18]

Bulgaria has proposed to sign a treaty (based on that 1999 Joint Declaration) guaranteeing the good neighbourly relations between the two countries, in order to enable Bulgarian support for the accession of North Macedonia to the European Union.[19][20]

During the last few years thousands of citizens of North Macedonia have applied for Bulgarian citizenship (amongst them North Macedonia's former PM Ljubco Georgievski[21]), with 42,372 having already received Bulgarian passports. In order to obtain the passport, the citizens of North Macedonia who apply for Bulgarian citizenship must prove that they have a Bulgarian origin and a Bulgarian national consciousness. Between January 1 to November 18, 2011, the Bulgarian council for citizenship considered 22,241 applications for citizenship, of which 13,607 were approved.[22][23][24]

The governments of Bulgaria and North Macedonia signed a friendship treaty to bolster the relations between the two Balkan states in August 2017.[25] The treaty was ratified by the parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia on the 15th and of Bulgaria on 18th January 2018.[26]