English
The progress report on Macedonia submitted by Austrian member of the European Parliament Thomas Waitz is peppered with hundreds of amendments, most of them coming from Bulgarian and Greek MEPs, who are trying to insert their nationalist positions. Macedonia expects that the often hotly contested report will acknowledge the centuries old Macedonian national identity and language – something that Bulgaria and Greece strongly oppose. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski today said that among the amendments is a particularly concerning one.
It comes from a member of the European Parliament from the ruling GERB party, who wants the Macedonian identity to be labeled as “present” or contemporary. This clearly brings to the surface the policies from the Zivkov era, which are unfortunately still alive among the politicians in Sofia, Mickoski said, adding that our reaction is to call for respect for the good-neighborly relations between the two countries.
The report will call on Macedonia to meet the Bulgarian demand that the Bulgarian minority is listed in the Preamble of the Macedonian Constitution – the SDSM – DUI regime agreed to this even though it never had the numbers in Parliament to achieve it. Macedonia demands guarantees from the European Union that this will be the last Bulgarian request after which Macedonia will be able to complete its EU accession talks on the merit of its candidacy, and will not open the door for numerous other demands that will impede the negotiations and will be aimed against the Macedonian national identity.
