Displaying a complete disregard of its own charter, the EU has adopted France's proposal that fully endorses Bulgarian anti-Macedonian policy, and which requires that Macedonia comply with Bulgaria's demands as a condition for Macedonia's EU membership*.

Bulgaria's demands include: renouncing the existence of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria; the Macedonian language, nation, and culture as a whole; adoption of official Bulgarian policy that everyone and everything Macedonian is "really Bulgarian"; the revision of Macedonian history to deny that Bulgaria was an ally of Nazi Germany during WWII, occupied Macedonia, and committed heinous war crimes against Macedonians, including the expulsion of over 7,000 Macedonian Jews to the Treblinka death camp in Poland; and that Bulgaria be referred to as a "liberator" instead of an occupier of Macedonia.

The European Union is compelled to condemn Bulgaria for blatantly violating the EU charter and the rights of Macedonians (which the European Court of Human Rights has on 14 occasions), and to take action to reprimand Bulgaria. Instead, it chose to follow its anti-Macedonian precedent, which was set with its endorsement of Greece's policy to change Macedonia's name to the highly offensive "North Macedonia" (designed to negate Macedonians' ethnic identity and hand the term "Macedonia" to Greece) and to deny the existence of the Macedonian minority in Greece, as well as the Macedonian nation, language, culture and history in its entirety.

In what is known as the "French Proposal", Emmanuel Macron fully endorsed Bulgaria's demands and included them as a prerequisite for Macedonia's EU membership, which were then officially adopted by the European Union. EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, announced:

"EU takes all Bulgarian concerns very seriously and they are now part of the negotiation process. The moment for responsible decisions is now. Western Balkans should be part of our European Union. We will be stronger together."

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International reminds Mr. Varhelyi and the EU that Bulgaria's "concerns", as stated by Ekaterina Zakharieva during her capacity as Bulgaria's Foreign Minister and reiterated daily by official Bulgaria:

“Our concerns come from the never-ending claims for a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. The acknowledgment of Bulgarian roots would put an end to this.”

MHRMI asks if any EU country or parliamentarian would renounce their own identity. We specifically ask if France would accept that its language and culture are "really German", that Nazis "liberated" their country in WWII, and that the country's new name is "West France", renouncing all claims to everything French.

The EU would not expect France to accept blatant untruths, ludicrous historical revisionism, and basic denial of self-determination, nor should it of Macedonia.

MHRMI reiterates its call for those truly interested in defending human rights to condemn the EU and NATO for its anti-Macedonian policies, to demand that Bulgaria and Greece be reprimanded for their violation of Macedonians' rights, and to defend Macedonia's right to its own name, identity, culture, language, and history.

* MHRMI is against EU and NATO membership for Macedonia as these organizations blatantly defy their "values of spreading democracy and human rights".

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) has been active on human and national rights issues for Macedonians and other oppressed peoples since 1986. MHRMI demands respect for Macedonia's name, identity and human rights for oppressed Macedonians in the Balkans. For more information: 1-416-850-7125, info@mhrmi.org, mhrmi.org, twitter.com/mhrmi, facebook.com/mhrmi, instagram.com/MacedonianHumanRights #OurNameIsMacedonia