site.btaEP's Foreign Affairs Committee Postpones Vote on North Macedonia's EU Integration Progress Report

The Committee on Foreign Affairs at the European Parliament (EP) agreed on Wednesday to postpone the vote on a report on the progress of North Macedonia towards EU accession on a proposal of rapporteur Thomas Waitz. The vote in the parliamentary committee is scheduled to take place on June 24 and in the EP plenary in Strasbourg in July.

"There was quite intensive political debate around this report. I must say that I absolutely stand behind my report. All groups have been involved into the negotiations. All groups have participated in forming these compromises. This is a report of the European Parliament and the European Union to the state of accession when it comes to the country of North Macedonia. This report is not there to solve bilateral issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia. But the treatment of minorities is a European issue," rapporteur Thomas Waitz said

MEP Ivaylo Valchev (Europe Conservatives and Reformists/There Is Such a people) thanked Waitz for his decision and described it as wise, timely and responsible. Valchev called for another meeting to be convened to clear up sensitive issues in connection with the document before June 24.

MEP Svetoslav Stoyanov (Europe of Sovereign Nations/Vazrazhdane) welcomed Waitz's proposal and described it as a demonstration of common sense. He expressed his expectation that the EP leadership would investigate the facts and circumstances of the irregularities identified during the preparation of the report.

All Bulgarian MEPs have sent a letter expressing doubts about the report and reporting irregularities, including unauthorized and premature leaks of inside parliamentary information, key elements of the draft document and controversial amendments, to officials in Skopje, the GERB/EPP press office said. As an example, North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski's statement of June 1 that he was familiar with the report in advance is cited.

Mickoski claims that the final version of the report will leave out proposals by MEPs. At issue, for example, is a request to include the word “current” when referring to “Macedonian language and identity”, which would bring the text in line with the approved negotiating framework. The request was made by shadow rapporteur Ivaylo Valchev and was sent only to the shadow rapporteurs, the advisers working on the dossier and the secretariat of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, but less than 24 hours after that Mickoski was familiar with the request, the statement noted. It adds that it is worrying that Mickoski claims that his government worked on this report for 11 months together with the rapporteur to arrive at such a result.

These disclosures, made before the conclusion of the negotiations between the shadow rapporteurs, point to a continuous leakage of information or even worse - a breach in the security of the servers and mail of the EP employees by foreign countries, the Bulgarian MEPs say.