site.btaReport on North Macedonia's Progress towards EU Membership Discussed in Strasbourg

The report of the European Parliament (EP) on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia towards EU membership was discussed on Tuesday in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

The rapporteur for the country in the EP, Thomas Weitz, said during his opening speech before the debate that the Republic of North Macedonia is a multi-ethnic country with people of different faiths who have built a peaceful society.

He stressed that when the accession process started, the country was leading the process on a par with Slovenia, but today, 20 years later, because of various obstacles, including history and building good neighbourly relations, the country has not yet officially started negotiations. Weitz said good neighbourly relations depended on both sides.

According to Weitz, North Macedonia is a reliable partner of the European Union, sharing a common foreign and security policy as well as its values.

Weitz mentioned the need for further reforms, underlining the key necessity of including Bulgarians in the country's Constitution as a condition for the start of substantive negotiations.

He also touched on several other elements where further action is needed, such as fighting corruption and hate speech, limiting foreign influence, transparency in the media and others.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos noted that this is the first progress report on the Republic of North Macedonia's European path in the last three years. She added that this is an unequivocal message that the EU supports the country's EU integration and sets the conditions for the process to move forward.

Kos also referred to the implementation of constitutional changes as a key condition for the formal start of accession negotiations, adding that other steps were also needed, such as reform of public administration, respect for citizens' rights, including freedom of expression and media freedom, and the fight against corruption.