Her political and diplomatic “slap” EU In Skopje, the vote in favor of the progress exposure for the Northern Macedonia For the years 2023 and 2024, held today (09.07.2025) in Brussels.
The reason is clear, since the European Parliament with 461 votes “in favor”, 121 “According to” and 107 abstentionsapproved the EU progress report on Northern Macedonia, but they had References to “Macedonian national identity” and “Macedonian language” are removed.
Following an amendment tabled by the three largest political groups in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, and Renew Europe, All references to “Macedonian national identity” and “Macedonian language” were removed from the progress report on Northern Macedonia.
These reports existed in the plan of the report, which was approved on June 24, 2025, by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, despite the strong reactions of the Bulgarian MEPs, who argued that national identity and language issues did not have a position in the progress of a candidate.
Prime Minister of Northern Macedonia, Christian Mitskoski described as ‘Nasty’ the amendment with which they were removed from the report References to “Macedonian national identity and language” and He accused Bulgaria of undermining the European perspective of his country.
“Today, Bulgaria worked against us […] Bulgaria hinders the European course of Macedonia, not from now but since 1990. Bulgaria has a clear agenda and plan; it is guided by the thought of the destruction of the Macedonian nation and its identity, “Mitskoski said after today’s European (09.07). Macedonia.
The rapporteur in the European Parliament for Northern Macedonia, Austrian MEP Thomas Vaic (Greens/ European Free Alliance) in a written statement after the vote said that “Some Bulgarian MEPs abused the report for domestic political purposes”.
Bulgarian MEPs had accused the Austrian MEP of “bias” in favor of Skopje. Sofia argues that the language and identity of Skopje have Bulgarian roots and did not exist in 1945, when the area was incorporated in Yugoslavia.
On the contrary, The government of Skopje insists that its identity and language are separate and have been in centuries.
The differences of Skopje – Sofia
Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria have historical, national and linguistic differences that last for decades. Bulgaria prevented the start of Northern Macedonia’s accession negotiations with the EU.
In the summer of 2022, the then governments of the two countries, after the EU mediation, had reached a compromise proposal, which provided that Bulgaria would lift the veto it had launched the Northern Macedonian accession negotiations with the EU, under the EU, country.
The proposal was accepted by the previous center-left government of Northern Macedonia, but it was unable to secure a 2/3 majority in Parliament to modify the Constitution due to the opposition of the country’s right and current ruling party, Prime Minister VMRO-DPMN.
The latter states that his government does not accept the proposal and will not consent to such a modification of the country’s constitution.
Both Brussels and Sofia have repeatedly stated, to Northern Macedonia that it will be able to open the funds of the EU accession negotiations, after first amending its constitution.
According to the latest population census held in Northern Macedonia, the Bulgarians account for only 0.2% of the country’s population (a total of 3,500 people), an element that the official Sofia disputes and considers that the percentage of Bulgarians in Northern Macedonia is far higher.
Sofia believes that the census was done by methods that did not ensure the participation of all the Bulgarian citizens of the country and accuses Skopje of silencing the historical Bulgarian presence.
Northern Macedonia’s problematic relations with Bulgaria have worsened in particular by taking power in Skopje by VMRO-DPMNE a year ago.