site.btaUPDATED European Parliament Removes Phrase “Macedonian Language and Identity” from North Macedonia's Progress Report on EU Path

References to language and identity in the European Parliament's annual report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia on its path to EU membership have been removed. After a discussion in Parliament that took place on Tuesday night, the report was adopted with 461 votes in favour, 121 votes against, and 107 abstentions out of 689 votes cast in the 720-seat Parliament at a plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Andrzej Halicki (European People's Party or EPP), Kathleen Van Brempt (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats or S&D), and Dan Barna (Renew Europe) tabled written amendments to remove references to language and identity from the report. One of the amendments they tabled, Amendment 21, which was voted on first, was adopted with 458 votes in favour, 109 against, and 118 abstentions. According to this amendment, the term “Macedonian language and identity” is deleted from the third paragraph.

This is the first report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia on its European path in the last three years. The draft report on the country's progress towards EU membership caused tension in Bulgaria because of the wording “Macedonian language and identity” contained therein.

The report was approved by the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy on June 24, 2025, with 40 votes in favour, 19 against, and 10 abstentions. At that time, the Committee did not allow the EPP Group to table an oral amendment to the text to add “contemporary” before the words “Macedonian language and identity”.

The EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, and the Greens announced that they would submit the same amendment in writing before the report is voted on in the plenary session in Strasbourg in July.

The Republic of North Macedonia applied for membership in March 2004 and was granted candidate status in December 2005.