In Sofia, at a joint address, the Bulgarian and Slovak prime ministers said out loud what half of Europe thinks quietly: sanctions policy toward Russia is not delivering results, and yet it keeps being repeated.

Rumen Radev put it most directly. "Logic says that when you keep applying an approach that does not produce results, that approach should be changed." A sentence that sounds banal until you remember it comes from the prime minister of an EU member state, spoken in an EU member state, about EU policy.

Robert Fico went a step further and named the tool that genuinely hurts in Brussels. "If sanctions are proposed that threaten our interests, we will not support them and we are ready to use the veto." And then, without detour: "I do not believe in sanctions policy."

The veto as a red line

The hardest sentence of the whole address was not about Russia at all. Fico said that attempts by some EU countries to limit the right of veto in certain areas are a "red line" for Slovakia.

That is the heart of it. The argument looks like it is about sanctions - it is really about whether small countries in the Union get to keep the mechanism that lets them say no. Any reform that erases unanimity puts precisely them in the position of voting for decisions they do not want.

For a country like Macedonia, which has spent years waiting at the EU's door as if queuing at a municipal counter, this is not somebody else's argument. The mechanism being diluted now is the same mechanism we will inherit tomorrow - if we get in at all. The question is whether we are waiting for a seat at a table where everyone has a vote, or a seat at a table where only a few vote.

Note what exactly was said

Neither of the two said they are leaving the Union. Quite the opposite. Radev was explicit: "Bulgaria is part of the EU's joint decisions, but when we see decisions that threaten our national interests, we do not hesitate to defend our interests in Brussels." And he added: "Our life is in the EU and NATO, but that does not mean we should not communicate and have normal relations with other countries."

That is not an exit. That is positioning - stay inside, but cancel the obedience. The most useful possible position while negotiations over the next package are running.

Fico also recalled that Slovakia took part neither in financing Ukraine's war effort nor in the 90 billion euro credit allocation. Both called for diplomatic solutions, arguing that the military approach only increases the risks.

Is this a matter of principle or a negotiating position for something else? The history of European summits suggests that red lines usually have a price. The only question is whether the price will be paid in money, in sanctions exemptions, or in something else we will never hear about.