Late on Friday night, Skopje adopted constitutional changes, which lead to renaming of the Republic of Macedonia to the Republic of North Macedonia. This has triggered unusually fast but also anticipated reactions in Sofia. Early on Saturday after the vote, the Foreign Ministry identified changes as an event of great importance for Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic prospects, for the region as a whole, and for bilateral relations.

The high significance Bulgaria attaches to the situation is understandable. As journalist Kostadin Filipov recently wrote: "FYROM goes, North Macedonia is here" and this means that at its western border, Bulgaria will cease to have a neighbor with a controversial name and in the foreseeable future will acquire a new ally in NATO and a partner in the EU. It is important to point out that Bulgaria itself has never accepted the name FYROM and was the first in the world that recognized its western neighbor under its constitutional name - the Republic of Macedonia. The forthcoming change in the future does not imply that Bulgaria recognizes a brand new state name, but the name already recognized by the state with the addition of geographical definition "north".

Until recently, there have been discussions over this definition in Bulgaria because of fears that it would imply possible territorial claims related to the geographical area of "Pirin Macedonia". The newest political realities in the bilateral relations that arose with the signing of the Neighborhood Agreement with Macedonia, however, led to a revision of this notion. This became very clear in June this year, when Skopje agreed with Athens on the name "Republic of North Macedonia". Political forces represented in the Bulgarian parliament expressed a new, positive attitude to the new name, and the ruling GERB party even identified it as the best option of all possible. Even an ardent nationalist, such as VMRO leader Krassimir Karakachanov, pointed out that the agreement on the name "North Macedonia" did not contain any claims to Bulgaria and it should not bother anyone, given that almost 30 years ago Bulgaria recognized the name "Republic of Macedonia", and Macedonia as a geographical term covers a much larger territory than the name "Republic of Northern Macedonia."

When in June a positive attitude towards the name "Republic of North Macedonia" was seen in the National Assembly, the Bulgarian Socialist Party asked the government to call on Skopje to ensure that there would be no territorial claims to Bulgaria. The VMRO leader then commented that such guarantees already existed in the Neighborhood Agreement signed with Bulgaria’s neighbor, yet they promised to the Foreign Ministry that additional guarantees would be requested. Indeed, Macedonia will also have to provide such guarantees to NATO and the EU as a condition for its acceptance in them. The change of name has taken place precisely for that purpose, and this in a sense means that the condition of guarantees has already been a priori accepted.

English: Alexander Markov