site.btaReport on North Macedonia's Progress towards EU Membership to Be Put to Vote in Strasbourg

The European Parliament’s annual report on North Macedonia’s progress towards EU accession will be put to a vote during a plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The report was debated in the chamber on Tuesday.

Tensions have arisen in Bulgaria over the draft report due to the inclusion of references to “Macedonian language and identity”. The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the draft on June 24, 2025, with 40 votes in favour, 19 against and 10 abstentions. At the time, the committee rejected an oral amendment from the European People’s Party (EPP) group that would have inserted the word “contemporary” before the references to “Macedonian language and identity”.

The EPP, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Renew Europe, and the Greens said that they would submit the same amendment in writing ahead of the plenary vote in Strasbourg in July. EPP MEP Andrzej Halicki, S&D MEP Kathleen Van Brempt and Renew Europe MEP Dan Barna tabled written amendments seeking to remove all mentions of language and identity from the report.

North Macedonia’s President Gordana Siljanovska said on Tuesday that the proposed amendments by the EPP, S&D and Renew Europe to strike references to “Macedonian identity” and “Macedonian language” highlight a democratic deficit in the EU. Quoted by the Vecer news outlet, Siljanovska said the nature of the amendments “shows that not only the world, but Europe and the EU itself have a serious problem with democracy”.

In an interview with Kanal 5 earlier in July, Siljanovska added that the proposed changes to the report by rapporteur Thomas Waitz reflect the position of a large group of MEPs and that “there is nothing European or democratic about them.” She said it was no coincidence that Waitz, an Austrian MEP, chose to include references to “Macedonian language and identity” in the report.

“Why else would he have written them? Because of pressure from us? Out of fear or affection for us? No, it’s because of the EU’s founding documents and the principle of equality,” Siljanovska said. She went on to explain that the EU’s foundational treaties—documents which, in her view, commissioners ought to be familiar with—contain clear parameters regarding identity.

“The Charter of Fundamental Rights clearly states that the EU will respect the national and cultural identity of all nations and States, their dignity and integrity. Unity in diversity,” Siljanovska noted.

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski also criticised the amendments, accusing the European Parliament of “erasing the Macedonian identity and Macedonian language from the European report in a Taliban-like manner”. He said that removing the term “Macedonian identity and Macedonian language” from the report was just as harmful as adding the word “contemporary” to it.

Mickoski blamed the previous government, led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), for the situation. He specifically named former foreign minister Bujar Osmani, former prime minister Dimitar Kovacevski, and former EU affairs minister Bojan Maricikj, among others.

The report on North Macedonia will be voted on alongside the European Parliament’s annual reports on the EU accession progress of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Georgia.