Jump to content

North Macedonia parliament votes for deal with Bulgaria, clearing way for EU membership talks

Checked
From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Monday, July 18, 2022

Other stories from North Macedonia
Location of North Macedonia

A map showing the location of North Macedonia


The debate room of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.
Image: Alekishere.

On Saturday, North Macedonia's parliament voted to accept a French-brokered deal, removing Bulgaria's opposition to the country joining the European Union (EU) in exchange for North Macedonian concessions.

The agreement was passed by the 120-member chamber with 68 votes in favour. Opposition members abstained from the vote, leaving the chamber in protest.

Announced by French President Emmanuel Macron last month, the proposed agreement would see North Macedonia agree to modify its constitution to recognise a Bulgarian minority, protect minority rights and banish hate speech, meeting Bulgarian demands. Amending the constitution may prove difficult as this would require a two-thirds majority or 80 votes within parliament and opposition parties with 46 votes between them have said they will not agree to this change, denouncing the proposal as a concession to Bulgaria’s questioning of North Macedonia’s culture, language, and identity. Macron has stressed the deal does not question the existence of a Macedonian language and both he and North Macedonia's ruling coalition have called the proposal a compromise.

The proposal has also proved controversial in Bulgaria, where it has been accepted by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov. Petkov's agreement to lift the veto on North Macedonian membership of the EU has been called a "national betrayal" by some of his allies, with the Bulgarian government collapsed by a no-confidence vote on June 22.

North Macedonia has been an EU candidate country for 17 years, with approval for membership talks being blocked by Greece and then by Bulgaria. North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski announced after the deal had been agreed to on Saturday that accession talks would begin on July 19.

The deal also clears the way for Albania to begin accession talks, as the EU has linked its progress to North Macedonia's. Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama stated a delegation would travel to Brussels on Monday to start membership talks.


Sources

Share this:  E-mail this story Share on Facebook Share on reddit.com Share on LinkedIn.com Share on twitter.com


This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License


Retrieved from "https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=North_Macedonia_parliament_votes_for_deal_with_Bulgaria,_clearing_way_for_EU_membership_talks&oldid=4823273"