AVENUES OF COOPERATION PROCEEDINGS

The Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities Skopje, in conjunction with the Visegrad Fund and the Balkan Trust for Democracy-The German Marshall Fund of the United States, is proud to present the proceedings from the Avenues of Cooperation conference, which was dedicated to finding a solution to the cultural conflict between the Macedonian and the Bulgarian state related to their respective nation-building narratives which has caused a stalemate in the Union’s enlargement process blocking the next step of North Macedonia’s accession to the European Union. The “Avenues of Cooperation Proceedings” present in depth analyses on these issues and include contributions from: Gábor Egry, Spasimir Domaradzki, Costas Douzinas, Marta Szpala, Michal Vit, Ljupcho Petkovski, Stefan Detchev, and Katerina Kolozova. Through various historical (with an emphasis on exploring the past experiences and conflicts/conflict resolutions of other Visegrad countries), cultural, and political analyses, based largely on the contributors’ own backgrounds, new, practical and concrete ways of moving forward past the deadlock between Macedonia and Bulgaria are presented from multiple perspectives all coalescing around a shared goal. Thus, these proceedings offer solutions and recommendations to long standing cultural, national, historical and political disputes between the two nations with the aim of bettering relations, increasing cooperation, and, crucially, unblocking the EU enlargement process and creating models that would allow for the prevention of any such situations happening again in the future.