Skopje wants the EU in the room for talks with Bulgaria, Sofia replies: fine, but the obligations stay

Skopje asked for a witness; Sofia answered with a rulebook. Foreign Minister Timcho Mucunski said Macedonia wants the European Union present at every future conversation with Bulgaria - either through its institutions or through member states - because, in his words, trust between the two sides is currently missing.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry didn't slam the door. But it didn't open it any wider either. Its reply is that Macedonia's accession is a European matter, settled within the European institutions and according to rules and procedures already in place. Bulgaria, it says, supports the work of the European Commission, and results are assessed in the European Council.

Then comes the sentence Skopje has been hearing for years: "Bulgaria has always been and remains open to constructive dialogue with the Republic of North Macedonia." And straight after it, the condition: "We expect the Republic of North Macedonia to fulfil its obligations and begin the necessary changes in order to progress on its European path." Sofia adds that good-neighbourly relations are a precondition for progress, and that other candidates are making significant progress despite a complex security environment.

Translated from diplomatese: the EU can take a seat at the table, but the menu has already been printed. Sofia keeps pointing to the European consensus of July 2022, and the key point remains writing Bulgarians into the Constitution. The government in Skopje doesn't dispute the constitutional amendment itself, but wants guarantees that no new bilateral conditions will appear in later stages of the negotiations.

Meanwhile, Mucunski noted that at the event he attended there were no official working meetings with Bulgarian representatives, apart from a brief encounter with his Bulgarian counterpart. From Brussels, a document on the future approach to enlargement is expected at the end of September or early October, ahead of Ursula von der Leyen's announced visit to the Western Balkans.

Four years after the consensus, the two sides agree on one thing - that they don't trust each other. Will having Brussels in the room change that, or will we just get one more witness to the same conversation going round in circles?