The 18th edition of the "Balkan Perspectives” podcast of forumZFD in North Macedonia tackles the role of the EU in integration and dealing with the past.

In this episode, the guest speaker Ognen Vangelov discusses the current dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia. In 2017, the Agreement between North Macedonia and Bulgaria was reached, unlocking the frozen relations between the countries. Initially it was success, but in 2019 the Bulgarian Government announced that they will block the further negotiations due to unresolved and unimplemented policies. Soon after, the dispute got other dimensions besides the historic; language, identity and the ethnic origin of the Macedonian population was disputed. Currently, the talks are in gridlock and no solution has been found. In this podcast you can hear more about the issue and the possible outcomes that can happen in the near future.