Bulgaria remains in the same position as regards North Macedonia, that it must fulfill its obligations to the European Union regarding the necessity for constitutional changes, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, stated in an interview with the Sofia newspaper "24 hours".

The constitutional changes, which are in the parliamentary procedure in North Macedonia, provide for the inclusion in the preamble of the Constitution of the Bulgarian minority, as a state-forming people.

This is the main condition that Skopje must fulfill, otherwise Sofia retains the right of veto which it used in November 2020, blocking the talks between North Macedonia and the EU.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, said that after the approval of the "French proposal" for the settlement of disputes between the two countries, the talks should continue between North Macedonia and the EU.

"There is no reason to change our position. With the implementation of the so-called 'French proposal', as a result of which the veto was removed, the talks are actually now not between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, but between North Macedonia and the EU. What is expected is that they fulfill their obligations to the EU. There is no reason to change our position," Denkov stressed.

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, after the meeting he held on August 27 with the Macedonian Prime Minister, Dimitar Kovacevski, a meeting that was held before the start of the Strategic Forum in Bled, Slovenia, said that he is convinced that the future of North Macedonia is in EU.

After the meeting with Kovacevski, Michel on the X social network gave full support to the initiative for the approval of the constitutional amendments, "despite numerous political challenges".

The importance of constitutional changes and the continuation of the integration process was also discussed in the meetings of the special envoy of the United States for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, during his visit to Skopje on August 24 and 25.

The constitutional changes are opposed by the Macedonian opposition which claims that "the inclusion of the Bulgarian minority in the Constitution does not mean the end of the demands of the Bulgarian diktat".