Activist Mihail Mihailov from Bulgaria said that he was informed by the European Parliament that it will review his petition against Bulgaria for its denial of the Macedonian minority.

Mihailov is a self-declared ethnic Macedonian journalist best known for his frequent public urination of the Bulgarian flag which he features on his Youtube channel. He demanded that the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament reviews the issue of the non-recognition of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian veto of Macedonia’s EU accession talks. iIn the response he received in late April, MEP Dolors Montserrat from the Committee on Petitions informs him that the petition is admissible “since the matter you raise falls within the European Union’s field of activity” and that she has “asked the European Commission to conduct a preliminary investigation of the issue”.

Bulgaria denies the existance of a Macedonian minority on its territory and only allows Macedonians in Macedonia to self-declare as such after the country agrees that it is a “newly created national identity” derived from the Bulgarian nation.