for the ethnic composition of this population, the most recorded were Albanians - 61% of the total, 31% from registered were Bulgarians and 8% were recorded as Serbs. Acknowledgement of the Bulgarian minority The people in Albania who have preserved their Bulgarian ethnic identity are an important testimony to the truth about the historical past of the country as well as the geographical region of Macedonia. Therefore, in the context of the integration process of Albania's accession to the EU, Bulgaria naturally insists on the equality of Bulgarians in Albania with the other minority ethnic groups according to the country's practice and legislation in this area, i.e. the official recognition of a Bulgarian minority along with other officially recognized minorities. The Bulgarian community is one of the most endangered, due to two main reasons: Unlike other communities that are compact, the Bulgarian one is mainly in three different regions that are not adjacent to each other. These are Gollobordë, Gora and Prespa, where the population is spread in small villages, in one of the poorest eastern regions of Albania; The Bulgarian community varies in religion. In Prespa the Orthodox Christians prevail, in Gollobordë the community is mixed, while in Gora, the Muslims are a majority. These factors contribute to the specific status of the Bulgarian community in Albania as endangered and strengthen its need of national recognition. Although the 1989 Albanian census recorded 782 people who claimed either Romanian, Czechoslovakian or Bulgarian nationality, The Albanian statistics institute denies the existence of a Bulgarian minority in Albania. In 1998 Paskal Milo, then the Foreign Minister of Albania, made the following statement on minorities: "After World War II, we know this minority as Macedonian. I’d rather not elaborate on why we chose this way, but the Communist regime made this decision and it’s difficult for us now to change that." The Bulgarian government and some inhabitants of the Mala Prespa, Gollobordë and Gora regions dispute this. Two organisations for Bulgarians in Albania exist: "Prosperitet — Golo Brdo" and the cultural association "Ivan Vazov" in Mala Prespa. More than 800 Albanian citizens of Bulgarian descent have acquired Bulgarian passports based on claims of Bulgarian origin. According to Macedonian authorities, the Slav minority of Albania consists only of ethnic Macedonians and not Bulgarians. In 2008, the Bulgarian government reported that it had reached an agreement with the Albanian government that forms in Albania's next