Sofia on alert over attempt to remove key text from EU report on North Macedonia

The European Parliament votes today on a report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia on the European integration path. However, the vote is preceded by a controversial case the President of Bulgaria Iliana Iotova signalled about - the attempt to remove paragraph 73 of the report, which calls on historians and scholars to determine how common history is interpreted and how to change textbooks so as not to instil hatred between the two societies.

Bulgaria supports the membership of its south-western neighbour in the European Union, but insists that the country fulfil the commitments made, enshrined in the European negotiating framework and in the bilateral agreements between the two countries. After the so-called "French proposal" in 2022, the conditions related to the constitutional changes (which would include Bulgarians as a state-forming people with equal rights with the other communities in the country) and good neighbourly relations were included in the European negotiating framework of North Macedonia. Bulgaria points out that these agreements are not subject to renegotiation and part of the bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation from 2017 is also a Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues.

"Bilateral disputes are part of the negotiation process. We should not run away from them," Milen Keremedchiev, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, has told BNR. According to him, North Macedonian politicians are making enormous efforts to try to circumvent the French proposal, which was voted on and signed by all Member States and by North Macedonia.

"North Macedonia and its politicians want to drag Bulgaria into a bilateral dispute and turn the failure to implement the signed agreement with all Member States into an accusation against Bulgaria that it is the only country stopping North Macedonia on its European path. We should not worry in this direction," he says.

There is a risk that paragraph 73 of the report will be removed, which requires strong activation of Bulgarian MEPs in all parliamentary groups.

"But even if this paragraph is erased, this is a report that in no way lifts the veto imposed by all Member States on the start of the negotiation process for North Macedonia's membership in the EU," Keremedchiev said in an interview with "Horizont" program of the BNR.

"North Macedonian politicians are fighting Bulgaria on all fronts. We see that this cry of hatred, this constant vilification of Bulgaria, pointing fingers as the sole culprit for stopping North Macedonia's EU membership, is already really planting deep roots in North Macedonian society. There are numerous acts of aggression against Bulgaria. This hatred, which is pouring from both the media in North Macedonia and politicians, reaches the depths of the society," he says.

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According to him, Bulgaria should approach this very calmly and not engage in this type of rhetoric:

"This is what politicians in North Macedonia are currently trying to do - to drag Bulgaria to a very low level and to an exchange of notes, to angry comments, to verbal skirmishes, and thus to belittle the main task, which is that Bulgaria must be very active in Brussels, in the EP, in talks with the other Member States."

According to Milen Keremedchiev, we need to be calmer and more confident in our rightness and in our actions. Bulgaria has many tools which it can use to try to show that this candidate country does not meet the requirements and to protect its interests, he says.

"Even if this paragraph in the report is removed, if it comes to opening negotiation chapters, Bulgaria has the right to veto again and set conditions for these chapters to be closed. Good neighbourliness is one of the first chapters to be opened in the negotiation process. The parliaments of all Member States must ratify the accession treaty. So, the Bulgarian parliament will have the final word on whether or not to ratify this treaty."

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Editor: Elena Karkalanova