According to Hristijan Mickoski, the citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia are seeking Bulgarian passports not because of “ethnic or national affiliation” and “they will tear them up on the first day the country becomes a member of the EU”. The Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski was asked whether he would ask the citizens of North Macedonia who hold Bulgarian passports to give them up, BTA reported.
“This is a personal decision. The real question is why Macedonian citizens did not ask for a Bulgarian passport before Bulgaria joined the EU. The Bulgarian passport is not because of ethnicity or national affiliation. As far as I know, Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Serbs, Vlachs, and Bosniaks all have Bulgarian passports - for economic reasons. They think that in this way they will more easily get a job opportunity in the EU countries, not because they feel Bulgarian. I am sure that this is not the reason. And I am sure that everyone would give up (a Bulgarian passport) tomorrow if this injustice of waiting two and a half decades to start negotiations (with the EU) had not happened. If we had a normal path, like all new EU member states, I guarantee you that not a single citizen would ask for a Bulgarian passport. We have many internal problems, but we deserve much more than many EU member states (to be an EU member). And I guarantee you that if we get what we deserve, on the first day we become an EU member, they will tear them (Bulgarian passports). I guarantee you”, said Mickoski, who was visiting the Chamber of Northwestern Macedonia today. His speech was broadcast online on the government channel.
Asked if there is another option that does not include changing the negotiating framework, which is a condition for the actual start of negotiations on North Macedonia's accession to the EU, Mickoski again indicated that the alternative is constitutional changes to include Bulgarians in the country's basic law with a deferred entry into force.
„If there is a will, there is a way, here is the way. For more than two decades we have been talking about the EU and we are stuck before the start of negotiations. There is always something else, and something else. The same ones who said these things must show whether they rely on us. But not in words, but in deeds. We have given them a way. Deferred action is one of the ways”, said Mickoski, who specified that he had talked about this “with all international representatives”.”.