North Macedonia: The new Enlargement Commissioner calls on the country to change its Constitution in order to move forward on its European path

The new EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kosh expects North Macedonia to proceed with amending its constitution (to include the Bulgarian minority living in the country) to allow the country’s accession process to proceed.

“I expect North Macedonia to change its Constitution, nothing less, nothing more. I think it is possible to achieve this,” Marta Kosh told reporters from North Macedonia after the new European Commission was approved by the European Parliament today.

Slovenian Marta Kosh also said that in the coming period she will visit all the countries that are candidates for EU membership, while in the case of North Macedonia she said that she will hold talks with both the leadership of Skopje and that of Sofia and stress that it is up to them and not Brussels to resolve the differences between them.

Bulgaria has “vetoed” the start of North Macedonia’s accession negotiations with the EU because North Macedonia has not implemented its obligation to amend its constitution to register the Bulgarian minority living in the country. Brussels has made it clear to Skopje that without the amendment of the constitution, the country cannot start accession negotiations with the EU.

North Macedonia’s European path remains stalled , mainly because Skopje has not fulfilled the obligations it had undertaken – on the basis of an EU-brokered agreement. The agreement stipulates that Bulgaria will lift its veto on North Macedonia’s continued accession negotiations with the EU, provided that North Macedonia first amends its constitution.

The previous center-left Social Democratic Party government in North Macedonia had accepted the deal, but was unable to implement it, as amending the country’s constitution requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, and Christian Mitzkowski’s right-wing VMRO-DPMNE party, which took over the country’s government last June, has not consented to it.

Last September, the European Commission decided to disconnect Albania’s European path from that of North Macedonia, and the former started negotiations on October 15, opening the first accession chapters with the EU, while North Macedonia remained “stalled.”

In the meantime, the government of Christian Mitskoski has made a manoeuvre, expressing its intention to consent to the amendment of the North Macedonian constitution, with the condition that this should come into force after North Macedonia joins the EU, which Bulgaria has categorically rejected, while the EU also appears wary of this.

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