site.btaUPDATED Report on North Macedonia's Progress towards EU Membership Adopted in Strasbourg

The European Parliament’s (EP) annual report on North Macedonia’s progress towards EU accession was adopted during a plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The report was voted with 461 in favor, 121 against and 107 abstained out of 689 EP members who voted. 

This is the first such report in the past three years.

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.

The Republic of North Macedonia submitted its application for EU membership in March 2004 and was granted candidate status in December 2005.