site.btaEP Rapporteur Waitz: EU Report Should Not Be Used to Block North Macedonia’s Constitutional Changes

The European Parliament’s report on the progress of North Macedonia in its EU accession process should not be used as a pretext to avoid implementing the country’s constitutional changes, said Thomas Waitz, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on North Macedonia, in an interview with TV Kanal 5.

"This is an agreement that North Macedonia signed with the EU, stating that these changes will be made, and immediately afterward we will begin the actual accession negotiations," Waitz said. "I believe a large part of the population in North Macedonia wants to see the country become an EU member, and I hope the government will fulfill the necessary requirements."

Waitz emphasized that the drafting of the report required significant effort and noted that mainly Bulgarian MEPs had tried to block it, with the primary goal of preventing the report from being published.

In response to a question about why language and identity were included in the report—despite this not being standard practice Waitz replied:

"There is also no precedent for the language and identity of a candidate country to be reviewed by anyone, but unfortunately this is exactly what is being done by Bulgarian politicians, government representatives, and MEPs." He added that this was the reason he believed it was important to address the issue in the report.

“The amendments calling for the recognition of the identity and language of North Macedonia came from four political groups—the European People’s Party (EPP), the S&D, Renew Europe, and the Greens. All four groups submitted different amendments, calling for recognition of identity and language, and I, as the rapporteur, supported that,” said Thomas Waitz.

“You can see that I also submitted an amendment in that direction, but this initiative came from the four groups. Unfortunately, the EPP withdrew its support for the draft report, which had been agreed upon among all of us, including the Conservatives and Patriots for Europe. But they pulled their support, which is why I proposed postponing the vote in the Foreign Affairs Committee to find a solution,” he explained.

Waitz added that he had also proposed an amendment aimed at compromise, stating that recognition of identity and language is based on present-day realities and is unrelated to historical issues. “That amendment received 220 votes in favor—not enough to be included in the report. But this wasn’t surprising, as both the EPP and the Socialists voted against it,” he concluded.

In the interview, Thomas Waitz revealed that Bulgarian members of the European Parliament had attempted to have him removed as rapporteur on North Macedonia. He said he had been subjected to "serious pressure and a smear campaign," and was accused of being biased and corrupt.

"My phone number was shared in far-right Telegram groups," he stated.

"I received death threats and other forms of intimidation, and this continued even after the vote on the report," Waitz added.