The visit to Bulgaria is historic and our goal is to achieve progress in the Euro-Atlantic integration process, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU integration Bujar Osmani said in the interview with the Bulgarian News Agency BTA.

The first bilateral visit of the delegation of the new Macedonian government is Bulgaria. We have already visited Brussels, but this is first bilateral visit and our goal is to close open issues with the neighbor and to ask for Bulgaria's support in view of its forthcoming EU presidency in order to include the issue of Macedonia's membership on the EU’s agenda, Osmani said.

The results of the visit to Sofia are assessed as excellent and most importantly according to him is that the two governments’ delegations agreed the text of good neighbourly relations agreement with few remaining technical details to be coordinated until the visit of Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov to Skopje on August 2.

Our goal is to close all open issues - the issue of the Framework Agreement in Macedonia, the issue of good neighbourly relations agreement with Bulgaria, and the name issue with Greece to remain at the end. It is a difficult and emotional issue for whose resolving all parties should invest efforts, Osmani said.

He noted that the certain issues related to common history remain to be clarified in the good neighbourly relations agreement. Both governments consider that the history of the Balkans is intertwined among all nations, should bring us closer and not divide us, Osmani said.

We respect the common history, but we think that we should look forward to the future and strive to make progress as European countries, Osmani said.

Asked about the role of the economy and infrastructure projects in the relations between the two countries, Osmani answered that the economic cooperation between Macedonia and Bulgaria is not at the needed level and there are many opportunities for its promotion. Part of the reasons for this are political, and some due to lack of projects on cooperation. He underlined that there is excellent cooperation in relation to EU-funded cross-border cooperation projects, whereat more than 100 projects are implemented, significant number are prepared while over 45 projects are in the phase of realization.

Certainly we can do more. For this reason, political relations should be first settled aimed at companies and businessmen to develop cooperation, and our visit to Sofia gives such incentive, Osmani added.

He also emphasized the role of the Berlin process for connecting the countries of the region with transport corridors and energy systems, which as he said, will better prepare the Western Balkans for EU membership.

Referring to the name dispute with Greece, Osmani said that is an emotional issue, and where there are emotions included there is no rationality.

Unfortunately, in the past period instead of leaving emotion and look rationally, the oil was put on the fire. That’s why the process of creation of confidence-building measures between the two sides began. Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov visited Greece immediately after the formation of the new government to send a message that we are ready for a compromise on the name dispute. I have also sent message to my Greek partners that we should start communication in order to strengthen the confidence between the citizens, having in mind the common interest of the cooperation and the perspective of the region, Osmani said.

He said that the crisis in Macedonia has shown that the more the country is blocked, the more internal problems are created. Therefore, the country should move forward and look for other solutions such as Macedonia to receive an invitation to join NATO under the provisional reference, and during the process of ratification by member states, the talks with Greece to resume aimed at finding a solution. We suggest alternative and creative solutions in order to unblock this issue, Osmani said.

He also said that the issue of the Framework Agreement and the relations between Albanians and Macedonians should finally be closed.

The law envisaged within 2001 Framework Agreement, which has not been applied, is the Law on the use of the Albanian language. The idea is to apply that law and to close the issue of the Framework Agreement. In parallel, we are implementing the reforms and we are trying to unblock the processes. We have an agreement with the partners in the government and this is among the short-term goals, very important on the road to European integration. The European Commission requests from us to solve these issues, thus closing the normative part of the Framework Agreement, which will mean one problem less to solve, Osmani said.

Asked if this could again increase tensions between Albanians and Macedonians, he answered that on the contrary, the failure to resolve this issue is a permanent source of tension in the country.

I think that now Macedonian ethnic community understands that this issue should be resolved. We want this process to be inclusive and we are asking the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party to support it. There are signals coming from this party that made mistakes in regard to the Albanians and require this to be corrected. I think that VMRO-DPMNE now has a chance to amend itself in regard to Albanians and to support the law on the use of the Albanian language, Osmani underlined.

Our idea is to attract the opposition parties as well in the integration process. We consider that the Framework Agreement and integrations are non-partisan issues and national and ethnic non-party consensus should be achieved. That is why we are giving the opposition an opportunity to be part of that consensus. We do not want the merit of this process to be ours alone, it is a common process for which each of the parties that have been in power has contributed. That is the chance to get support for the Framework Agreement from all parties, as well as integration, Osmani said.

Asked whether the conditions formulated in the so-called Albanian platform remain, Osmani pointed out that one of these conditions is the Albanians to be able to participate in talks with Bulgaria on regulating open issues.

I am here today, which means that this issue is resolved. The platform has two parts - one which foresees debates on constitutional changes. This part is not included in the government's programme and foresees debates on constitutional changes in academic circles, in political circles and in civil society. The second part is within the framework of the Constitution and is part of the government's work, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bujar Osmani said in the interview with the Bulgarian News Agency BTA.