If there is a people in the Balkans which is closest to our people, this is the Macedonian people and we should not allow populist governments to create separation between these two nations, said Kristian Vigenin – MEP and Secretary of the National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in charge of foreign policy and international activity, following his two day visit to Macedonia. 
 

Kristian Vigenin emphasized the need to make difference between Macedonian government and Macedonian nation  - as the Bulgarian people can not be equated with the government of Boyko Borisov. "Our assessment is that the Macedonian government neglects the country's socio-economic problems at the expense of populist messages”, said Vigenin . “The Bulgarian Government abandoned the proclaimed objective of pursuing an active policy in the region of the Western Balkans and for more than three years did not take any substantial steps regarding the problematic issues in its relations with Macedonia. The sudden activity, declared over the past weeks, is very late and sheds a negative light not only in front of Macedonia, but also in the eyes of our European partners.”, added the MEP. 

 

According to Vigenin the most negative scenario would be for Greece to unblock its relations with Macedonia, while at the same time the Macedonian-Bulgarian relations to worsen. “We estimate the position of the President Plevneliev more as an electoral move aimed at attracting nationalist electorate, not as a position of a statesman concerned about the continued improvement of the relations between Bulgaria and Macedonia. We should be careful what messages we send, because they may cause wild reactions.”, said Vigenin and added: “The involvement of Macedonia in the negotiation process will enable Bulgaria to make its concreteness in the problematic questions and to insist on solving them.”.

 

Kristian Vigenin presented concrete measures which socialists offer. Firstly is the need to strengthen the political dialogue between the two countries. “Exchange of open letters is not a constructive approach, but a show for the public.”, said the MEP. Secondly BSP proposes two countries to set up a group of political experts, which will identify the open issues and offer action plan for their overcoming. "Thirdly - we think that the official position of Bulgaria regarding to the start of negotiations for Macedonia's EU membership should be formed after public discussion," said Vigenin. "BSP will strengthen the political dialogue with the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia. We reached principal agreement with the President of SDSM Branko Crvenkovski for  signing a Protocol of cooperation between the two parties."said the MEP.