North Macedonia agrees to deal with Bulgaria to cancel EU contract

It was one of those historical and identity struggles that shrouded the Balkans. Macedonia’s parliament on Saturday, July 16, approved a long-negotiated agreement between France to end its dispute with its neighbor Bulgaria, which for years has prevented negotiations from starting before joining the union. This small country of 1.8 million people. The two countries are particularly divided over the identity of their common historical figures or the nature of the differences between their languages.

After three days of debates in an atmosphere of strong protests by opponents of the right and the radical left, and with nationalist demonstrators gathered in front of the Parliament House in Skopje, the capital, 68 deputies out of 120 made various decisions worthy of recognition. “French proposal” Emmanuel Macron negotiated over a period of a few months, when France assumed the rotating presidency of the European Council. “Thank you to the MPs who voted for the country’s European future.”And the He praised Dimitar Kovacevsky, the Macedonian Prime Minister (Social Democrat), who supported this agreement.

Ursula von der Leyen in Skopje

All EU leaders immediately welcomed this vote. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Skopje on Thursday 14 July to invite members of Parliament to adopt the proposal. In the event of an affirmative vote, she had promised them to meet “Of the next few days” European intergovernmental conference marking the opening of accession negotiations with Skopje, as well as with neighboring Albania; Two candidate states whose fate is linked to Brussels. Once opened, negotiations must continue for years before they lead to accession.

On June 24, Bulgaria lifted its veto after it succeeded in imposing a requirement that North Macedonia amend its constitution to recognize the presence of a Bulgarian minority on its territory. Linguistically and historically close to Bulgaria, North Macedonia is still considered an integral part of their country by Bulgarian nationalists, although just over three thousand Macedonians declared themselves as ethnic Bulgarians at the last census.

EU candidate since 2005

The agreement initially drew heavy criticism from the Macedonian authorities, until France submitted a slightly watered-down version of the text. However, North Macedonia will have to amend its constitution before joining the European Union, a stage that is expected to be more difficult to cross as it requires approval by a two-thirds majority. The problem is that the European Union has lied to us a lot. Even pro-European intellectuals and experts like myself are skeptical of this proposal and do not necessarily trust it.”Zoran Nechiv, of the Institute for Democracy in Skopje, explains.

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