site.btaEuropean Parliament Must Adopt Unambiguous Report on North Macedonia - MEP Andrey Kovatchev

The European Parliament (EP) must adopt a clear and unambiguous report (on North Macedonia) that does not lend itself to interpretation, said MEP Andrey Kovatchev from the EPP/GERB-UDF in an interview with BTA in the lobby of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Kovatchev expressed hope that political groups beyond the EPP will succeed in convincing their colleagues of the importance of this issue. “We cannot open Pandora’s box when it comes to history, allowing politicians to dictate or reinterpret the past in ways that were never intended,” he stressed.

On June 4, the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs decided to postpone the vote on the report on North Macedonia’s progress toward EU membership, following a proposal by rapporteur Thomas Waitz. The committee vote is now scheduled for June 24, with a plenary vote expected in July in Strasbourg.

Kovatchev noted that despite statements made by the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, implying that the EP will, in effect, acknowledge the centuries-old history, culture, language, and identity of Macedonia, it is vital to uphold the credibility and dignity of the EP by ensuring that the texts it adopts and votes on are of high quality.

He confirmed that the EPP is working closely with all Bulgarian MEPs and political groups to ensure that the final wording of the report is clear and cannot be subject to various interpretations.

“We are obliged to provide a clear picture of what is at stake,” said Kovatchev. According to him, the discussion concerns the present-day modern identity, culture, and language of “this newly formed state, which after 1944 was part of Yugoslavia and later became an independent country—one that Bulgaria was the first to recognize, in order to help prevent a possible intervention by Milosevic.”

Kovatchev stressed that MEPs understand the European Parliament is not a historical institution or an academy of sciences, and does not issue certificates validating centuries-old or millennia-long histories of any state. The Bulgarian MEP recalled the existence of a framework set by the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and the establishment of a joint historical commission made up not of politicians but of scholars and academics. These experts, based on authentic documents from the relevant historical periods, are expected to provide recommendations to both governments for the joint commemoration of shared historical figures and events.

“We have an agreement that certifies the existence of a shared history between the two countries - a history that connects us and must be commemorated together, by overcoming ideological distortions and the legacy of totalitarian regimes,” Kovatchev stated.

He further remarked that the vast majority of citizens in North Macedonia support the country’s European integration and should, in his view, be deeply frustrated with their own leadership for using “Bulgaria” as a scapegoat to hinder that process. “We do not have a bilateral dispute,” he clarified. “We have a European proposal to start accession negotiations—an extremely democratic proposal rooted in human rights.”

The government of North Macedonia is using Bulgaria as a "punching bag" and an excuse to justify its inability to move forward on the path to European integration, said Kovatchev.

He emphasized the importance of recalling the unanimous decision of the Bulgarian National Assembly, which states that Bulgaria has no new conditions for North Macedonia beyond those outlined in the European compromise. These include the inclusion of Bulgarians in the preamble and all relevant sections of North Macedonia’s Constitution where other ethnic communities are listed, as well as the implementation of the bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation—provisions which are already embedded in the EU negotiation framework.

“This is an international legal agreement, ratified by both parliaments and deposited with the United Nations, and it must be implemented,” Kovatchev stressed. He expressed regret that the treaty is not being implemented and called for a third bilateral meeting between the two governments, without the involvement of NATO or any third-party mediator.

“Bulgaria and North Macedonia are democratic, civilized countries with an international legal agreement which stipulates that the two governments must meet annually,” Kovatchev noted.

He also lamented that in recent years Skopje has obstructed the implementation of the first two bilateral protocols, which address critical issues such as reducing hate speech, revising textbooks, and removing elements that promote hostility.