The entire Southeastern Europe has turned into a transit region for the increasing migration flow from the Middle East towards West Europe. It has recently spanned in a dramatic manner over one of Bulgaria’s western neighbors – Macedonia. While the police were trying to stop the inflow of hundreds, using tear gas along the border with Greece, thousands of other refugees wouldn’t stop coming. The issue was among the main topics of discussion at the recent two-day visit of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov to Skopje. That was easy to understand – an emergency situation had been declared due to the unprecedented pressure from the Greek side of the border, the refugee crisis brought the danger of becoming a humanitarian one and the Macedonian authorities looked for all the support they could think of, including the one of Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian foreign minister reacted positively by assuring that Sofia would uphold Macedonia’s efforts to receive the help of the European institutions in terms of finances and logistics. Bulgaria has already supported its western neighbor in such manner. During the crisis in Kosovo thousands of ethnic Albanians were looking for asylum. However, the situation is different now. Bulgaria guards its borders today not only as its own, but also as an EU external border.

The Foreign Minister promised support in Skopje and at the same time in Sofia Bulgaria’s Defense Minister announced that the army would join the strengthened control along the western borders, on a limited basis though. The participation of military personnel in border control in times of peace is unacceptable and this country has already been subject to criticism because of that. However, now an EC spokesperson has commented that it was up to the national authorities how they would protect their borders. It looks like the Commission has taken very seriously the warning of Chancellor Angela Merkel that the refugee issue would bring more trouble over the forthcoming years for the EU, than the Greek crisis and the stability of the euro.

At this point, when the long expected good neighborly relations treaty with Macedonia is on its way to become reality those emergency circumstances with the migration pressure might reflect into decisions that are not favorable to bilateral relations. The army issue also causes discomfort, but military personnel was already used at the construction of the fence along the border with Turkish. The migration pressure towards the EU is such a challenge that it might lead to the reconsideration of some acting free movement policies, which might affect the free movement of people between Bulgaria and Macedonia. The issue is too big and complicated and cannot be solved with bilateral decisions only, as Greece and Turkey are involved as well. However, Bulgaria and Macedonia will have to preserve the positive development in their relations despite the refugee issue.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev