site.btaBulgarian MEP Kyuchyuk: It Was a Mistake for Issues Like Identity and Language to Appear in a Political Report

"I believe that from the very beginning it was a mistake for issues like identity and language to appear in a political report," said Bulgarian MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Renew Europe/MRF) on Wednesday in response to a BTA question in Strasbourg.

Asked to comment on the removal of references to language and identity from the European Parliament’s annual report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia on its path to EU membership, Kyuchyuk added that the role of the report on the country has been unnecessarily overloaded over the years, because the document is meant to provide a political assessment of developments in North Macedonia based on certain indicators.

"This is not a historical commission, nor is this report meant to solve the long-standing Macedonian question. From that perspective, I am satisfied because the report stays within its proper scope," Kyuchyuk said. 

Asked whether the deadline mentioned during Tuesday’s debate on the report for official EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia to begin by 2027 is realistic, Kyuchyuk said that this depends entirely on North Macedonia.

"When negotiations will begin depends solely on North Macedonia, because the French proposal is on the table, it is a European proposal that was accepted, including in Skopje. From this point forward, clear political will must be demonstrated both by the government and the opposition in North Macedonia to build national consensus," Kyuchyuk added.

According to the Bulgarian MEP, EU accession requires a lot of work, but above all it requires political will to show the direction the country is heading in.

"If the direction is the European Union and there is no turning back from that, then everything possible must be done to make it happen," Kyuchyuk told BTA.

He believes that 2027 is a more realistic accession date for Albania and Montenegro, as their negotiation processes are progressing well.

"If the European Union already has its own internal political will to accept them, once they have fulfilled all the criteria, since fulfilling criteria is, to some extent, a technical issue, then the country’s entry into the EU is ultimately a deeply political matter," Kyuchyuk concluded.