site.btaNorth Macedonia PM Slams French Proposal Tying EU Entry to Historical Disputes

The French proposal is the only instance in modern Europe where a country's EU membership hinges on the decision of a commission that interprets history, North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told Parliament in Skopje on Thursday.

The French proposal, presented by the outgoing French EU Presidency in 2022, was designed to resolve a series of disputes between Sofia and Skopje concerning language, history, and the rights of ethnic Bulgarians in North Macedonia. Although the proposal does not explicitly refer to a "Bulgarian minority", it requires North Macedonia’s government to protect the rights of all minorities and communities by combating hate speech and discrimination and to respect the 2017 Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria.

According to Mickoski, the protocol signed by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani clearly states that the joint multidisciplinary commission on historical and educational issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia must complete its work before North Macedonia can become an EU member. “Even if we had been part of the negotiating team that agreed this deal, we would not have accepted it,” Mickoski said.

The question addressed to Mickoski came from SDSM leader Venko Filipce, who expressed concerns that the inclusion of the term “The nation and language of Noth Macedonia” in the country’s progress report, approved by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, presents for the first time a serious risk of the report marking out the language in a different way. The report is scheduled for a vote in the EU in July, and the European People’s Party has already announced they will submit an amendment to add the term “contemporary” to this reference. Filipce asked whether the current government would find a promised way to improve North Macedonia’s negotiating position on the country’s path to EU membership within its mandate.

“I have no problem including thirty [ethnic communities] in the constitution, but I have a problem discussing issues where we are continuously denied, delayed, and refused the right to be who we are. I am also entitled to doubt that this will not be the final concession we have to make, and that something new could arise before we reach the finish line,” Mickoski said regarding the condition to include Bulgarians in North Macedonia’s constitution.

Mickoski noted that for the past two years, the European Parliament had not adopted a progress report on North Macedonia’s EU accession, “because the issue was not about the identity and language of North Macedonia, but about the North Macedonia language and identity, which is completely different from the current report, where North Macedonia identity and language appear three times.”

“Here, Bulgarian representatives through an MEP who spoke for several groups—including the EPP, the Socialists, where SDSM sits, the Liberals, and the Greens—proposed modifying our identity and language with the word ‘modern.’ The aim is not simply for Bulgarians [to be written] into the constitution [of North Macedonia], but to create a new toponym, a new, modern North Macedonia identity and language. That is the essence of the French proposal, despite our warnings. We have two weeks and will keep working with MEPs and with everyone else—I hope you will, too. All of us must unite. So, I can tell you we will do everything we can to start negotiations, but we will not do so as ‘modern’ citizens of North Macedonia,” Mickoski said.

He reiterated his view that there is nothing illegitimate or wrong in the request for the North Macedonia people in Bulgaria to be included in the Council of Ministers, which oversees a committee working with ethnic communities but insisted that Bulgaria must first comply with rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He said, “Bulgaria should allow OMO Ilinden PIRIN to register, and after that, the association could propose its own member for the committee.”

“If they want Bulgarians to be written into the constitution, the very least we as a parliament can do is to demand that North Macedonia people be included in the Council of Ministers committee working with ethnic communities,” Mickoski added.