EP to drop all references to "Macedonian identity and language" from Skopje's progress report

The three largest parties in the European Parliament — the European People’s Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Renew Europe have reached an agreement to remove all references to ''Macedonian identity'' and ''Macedonian language'' from the EP draft report on North Macedonia’s progress. This was done at the request of the EPP, MEP Andrey Kovatchev said in a Facebook post. He expects the amendment to be supported by the majority in the European Parliament during next week’s plenary session.

"Topics of identity and language have no place in a report on the progress of an EU candidate country'', Andrey Kovatchev pointed out. According to him, such topics only cause division and open a Pandora’s box. ''In this particular case, this is confirmed by the constant statements of the powerholders in Skopje and especially by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, with his manipulations about ''centuries-old identity and language'', MEP Kovatchev added, as quoted by BTA.