North Macedonia vote advances country’s EU path in face of far-right attacks

Today, the European Parliament, adopted its first progress report on North Macedonia since 2022.

Greens/EFA MEP Thomas Waitz from Austria, European Parliament rapporteur on the report, comments:

“Today we adopted the first North Macedonia country report since 2022. North Macedonia has been a frontrunner in the region, showing real commitment to EU values, including a historic name change and bold reforms. But its accession has been unfairly blocked for too long due to bilateral disputes, fuelling public frustration and disillusionment with the EU. The report underlines that enlargement should be a merit-based process based on the Copenhagen Criteria and calls on North Macedonia to enact the necessary reforms. I call on all political parties in North Macedonia to engage in constructive dialogue to reach the required consensus, which would strengthen the country’s multi-ethnic character and accelerate EU progress. As rapporteur, I worked tirelessly for a well-balanced and impartial report on the democratic progress of this country. Unfortunately some Bulgarian MEPs hijacked the report for domestic purposes.”