While Sofia sets conditions for our road to the EU, a voice is rising in Europe itself that it's Bulgaria that owes the apology. The European Free Alliance - a union of European parties representing regions, minorities and stateless peoples - has unanimously adopted a declaration demanding Bulgaria apologise for crimes against the Macedonian minority and for its forced assimilation.

The declaration is no vague phrase. It specifically demands Bulgaria enforce the 14 cases lost before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg - cases concerning the refusal to register Macedonian associations. Bulgaria to this day refuses to acknowledge that a Macedonian minority exists on its territory at all.

The Alliance goes further, describing the situation as "one of the most serious human-rights crises in the EU". It traces the historical root to the denationalisation policies of the Todor Zhivkov era after 1963, and notes that today's Bulgarian politicians repeat the same rhetoric - that Macedonians "must not and cannot exist".

The declaration also names the formula we know all too well: "Macedonia in the EU - yes, but Macedonianism - no." In other words, entry into the Union in exchange for renouncing one's own identity. When a European organisation openly calls that blackmail, it might be a sign that the story served to us for years as "technical questions" has another, far clearer side.