"Strasbourg Calling" Before the report on North Macedonia and the red light "Macedonian identity and language"

This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by Ivaylo Valchev, MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), before today's vote in the EP on the report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia on its path to EU membership.

• MEP Ivaylo Valchev: All Bulgarian MEPs are united on the North Macedonia issue

It was important to engage high-level Bulgarian institutions to respond to the claims of the Macedonian side at this level, he emphasized.

According to him, the Macedonian side is lobbying extremely hard, and their Prime Minister says he knows who will vote how.

"The question remains how many people in the hall will support "identity and language".

Nowhere has the word "centuries-old" been mentioned before. Mr. Mickoski's interpretation that the EP will recognize a centuries-old identity and language does not correspond to the truth, assured MEP Andrey Kovatchev from the European People's Party (EPP) in the live studio of the BNR from Strasbourg called "Strasbourg Calling".

The younger generations cannot be educated to hate their neighbors, he expressed his opinion.

The main political groups - the EPP, the socialists and the liberals - have jointly submitted "amendments to delete and remove the texts that refer to Macedonian identity and the Macedonian language", reminded Kovatchev.

"These are the main amendments that we are following."

Andrey Kovatchev expressed his expectation that most MEPs would follow the requests of their political formations during the vote.

Overcoming the Yugoslav-communist doctrine is very difficult, the MEP admitted.

In his words, "the fight against Bulgarians" must be overcome, because ideological overtones have no place, and those in power in Skopje are "bringing the RSM into the Serbian world."