Dimitrovski From Sofia: "Not a Problem" — But Conditional, He Says After Headlines Dropped the Context
The deputy minister says headlines omitted the condition tied to reciprocity on Strasbourg rulings.
Deputy Foreign and Trade Minister Zoran Dimitrovski took part in the fifth edition of the "EU Meets the Balkans" forum in Sofia, where he spoke in Bulgarian. Following the event, some media outlets ran headlines claiming Dimitrovski had said it was "not a problem" for Bulgarians to be written into the Constitution — an interpretation he later publicly disputed.
"Several media outlets today ran headlines saying I said it's not a problem for Bulgarians to enter the Constitution, pulling sensational headlines in that sense that could mislead Macedonian readers. Unfortunately, the headlines don't convey the context in which I spoke about human rights — that Sofia must simultaneously implement the Strasbourg rulings on registering Macedonian associations," Dimitrovski said in a written response.
According to his statement, the government's positions remain unchanged: reciprocity in relations with Bulgaria, with questions of history and identity kept outside the accession negotiation process. His original remark in Sofia was that including Bulgarians in the Constitution "is not a problem," in the context of the minority Action Plan — but conditioned on mutual respect for European standards, including European Court of Human Rights rulings.
The gap between the headlines and the full statement is precisely that condition: whether writing Bulgarians into the Constitution is unconditionally acceptable, or tied to Bulgaria simultaneously implementing the rulings concerning Macedonian associations on its territory.
MKNews Hub · Politics · September 20, 2026