The next meeting of the Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, which was held on Thursday and Friday in Skopje, passed “in the usual way – "to no avail," the Bulgarian committee told BTA.
The members of the committee from North Macedonia have refused to adopt a text of a recommendation agreed in principle in June 2024 for the presentation of the Ohrid Archbishopric in the textbooks for the 7th ward in the Republic of North Macedonia.
On the second day of the meeting, the Bulgarian representatives familiarized their colleagues from North Macedonia with the text of the EP progress report on North Macedonia, adopted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) on June 3, which directly relates to the work of the historical committee.
„The Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Committee on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia is strongly encouraged to achieve clear and tangible results; "The texts must reflect the interpretation of historical facts and figures from the common history of the two peoples, based on objective, authentic and evidence-based historical sources and documents, scientific interpretation and historical documents, as postulated in the second protocol to the Treaty on Good Neighborhood with Bulgaria," says the compromise adopted by AFET, which the media in North Macedonia also reported on.
The next meeting of the Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues will be held in Sofia in September.
With the coming to power of the VMRO-DPMNE government, the composition of the commission from the Republic of North Macedonia was changed, with only one representative from its previous composition remaining.
The Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues was established as a result of the Treaty on Friendship and Good Neighborhood between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia signed on 1 August 2017. Macedonia.
So far, the joint historical commission has adopted in 2019 recommendations for the joint commemoration of five historical figures - the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, St. Naum of Ohrid, St. Clement of Ohrid and Tsar Samuil, and recommendations for changes in history textbooks for sixth grade in North Macedonia and fifth grade in Bulgaria.