site.btaForeign Minister Reiterates Sofia's Position on Skopje's Progress Towards EU Accession

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev Thursday commented on the postponement of a European Parliament vote on a report on the progress of North Macedonia towards EU accession.

Sofia's position has always been sincere and transparent, Georgiev said in an interview with bTV. "We have consistently stated that the European integration of the Western Balkan countries, including the Republic of North Macedonia, is in Bulgaria's interest and a key priority. It is an investment in the shared security architecture of the entire region."

The Foreign Minister also said: "We insist, however, on adherence to the principle of merit-based progress. We call for the implementation of the 2022 consensus, as it is the standard for measuring the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia in qualitative and objective terms."

The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament on Wednesday agreed to postpone the vote on a report on the progress of North Macedonia towards EU accession on a proposal by rapporteur Thomas Waitz. The Committee is scheduled to vote on June 24 and the EP plenary will vote in July.

Georgiev said Bulgaria was concerned by statements made by North Macedonia's Prime Minister, who took the liberty to disclose internal matters of the independent European law-makers.

The postponement came in response to a letter from all Bulgarian MEPs expressing doubts about the report and reporting irregularities, including leaks of inside parliamentary information, key elements of the draft document and controversial amendments, to officials in Skopje, GERB/EPP's press office said. The letter cited North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski's statement of June 1 that he had been familiar with the report in advance.

Mickoski claimed the final version of the report would leave out proposals by MEPs. In Mickoski's words, the working version of Thomas Waitz's report on Skopje's EU integration progress "mentions a separate Macedonian identity for the first time." However, shadow rapporteur Ivaylo Valchev (European Conservatives and Reformists/There Is Such a People) asked that the word "current" be placed before identity. He sent the request only to the shadow rapporteurs, the advisers working on the dossier and the secretariat of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, but less than 24 hours after that Mickoski was familiar with the request, the Bulgarian MEPs said.