English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that he expects a large number of members of the European Parliament not to vote for the amendment to remove references about the Macedonian national identity and language from the annual progress report. The Parliament is due to adopt the report, and the largest centrist groups said that they will accept the Bulgarian demands to strip the references, as part of Bulgaria’s push to undermine the historic character of the Macedonian national identity.
There are many members of the European Parliament who are calling and telling us that they will not vote for that amendment which, in a Taliban way, wants to erase the Macedonian identity and language from the report. This is the first time these references were included in the draft report. Also, I don’t believe that the shadow rapporteurs will support this amendments, Prime Minister Mickoski said.
According to the Prime Minister, this outcome is the expected result of the many concessions on national identity issues made to Bulgaria by the previous SDSM – DUI Government. “I regret that in the 21st century there are members of the European Parliament, in an institution that should be cradle of democracy, where human rights are respected, who act in this way over the identity of a small nation in Europe, but unfortunately there are such people. The adventure that began in 2022, inspired by Bujar Osmani and supported by political incompetents like Kovacevski and Maricic is now culminating and the citizens can see what it is about”, the Prime Minister said, referring to the so-called French Proposal, under which the then Macedonian Government agreed to implement the Bulgarian demands.
The main rapporteur, Austrian Green MEP Thomas Waitz, today said that Macedonia deserves to finally open its EU accession talks. Waitz said that Macedonia is EU’s trusted partner, that fully supports the EU foreign and defense policy, joined NATO and joins EU activities at a time when Europeans need to stand together.
