It was one of those historical and identity conflicts of which the Balkans have the secret. On Saturday 16 July, the Parliament of North Macedonia approved a long-negotiated agreement by France to put an end to its dispute with neighboring Bulgaria, which had for years prevented the opening of negotiations for accession to the European Union from this small country of 1.8 million inhabitants. The two countries are divided in particular on the identity of their common historical characters or the nature of the differences between their two languages.
After three days of debate in an atmosphere made electric by the strong protests of the oppositions of the right and the radical left and the presence of nationalist demonstrators gathered in front of the seat of the Parliament in Skopje, 68 deputies out of 120 adopted various resolutions worth recognition of the “French proposal” negotiated in recent months by Emmanuel Macron when France held the rotating presidency of the European Council. “Thank you to the deputies who voted for the European future of the country”, praised Dimitar Kovacevski, the Macedonian (Social Democratic) Prime Minister, who supported this agreement.
Ursula von der Leyen in Skopje
All EU leaders also immediately welcomed this vote. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, traveled to Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, on Thursday July 14 to call on MPs to adopt the proposal. In the event of a favorable vote, she had promised them to bring together “from the next few days” a European intergovernmental conference which should decree the opening of accession negotiations with Skopje, but also with neighboring Albania; two candidate countries whose destiny is linked by Brussels. Once opened, the negotiations should still last for years before leading to an accession.
On June 24, Bulgaria lifted its veto after successfully imposing a condition on North Macedonia amending its Constitution to recognize the existence of a Bulgarian minority on its territory. Linguistically and historically close to Bulgaria, North Macedonia is still considered an integral part of their country by Bulgarian nationalists, even though just over 3,000 Macedonians declared themselves as ethnic Bulgarians in the last census.
EU candidate since 2005
The agreement had initially triggered strong criticism from the Macedonian authorities, until France presented a slightly toned down version of the text. North Macedonia will however have to modify its Constitution before joining the EU, a stage which promises to be all the more difficult to cross as it requires the adhesion of a two-thirds majority. “The problem is that the EU lied to us a lot. Even pro-European intellectuals and experts like me doubt this proposal and no longer necessarily trust it”explains Zoran Nechev, of the Institute for Democracy in Skopje.
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