Bulgaria disrupts European Parliament’s bill on North Macedonia EU accession

Bulgarian politicians have pressured the European Parliament into delaying a report on European Union accession for North Macedonia, accusing a lawmaker in charge of the report of being too close to the candidate country.

Despite an agreement among major political families to adopt a report on progress the Balkan country has made on its path to EU accession, lawmakers Wednesday postponed the vote to the end of June.

All 17 representatives for Bulgaria in the European Parliament signed a letter, seen by POLITICO, denouncing Thomas Waitz, a Green lawmaker from Austria in charge of drafting the report. They say the North Macedonian government unduly influenced his handling of the negotiations and that he ignored violence against the Bulgarian minority there.

For his part, Waitz said he’s being targeted for not caving in to Bulgarian pressure.

Bulgaria has long accused its western neighbor of whitewashing their shared history and denying Bulgarian roots for North Macedonian language and identity. Bulgaria has wielded its veto power to stall North Macedonia’s EU accession talks more than once, demanding constitutional and educational reforms as conditions for progress.

The accusations started after Waitz pushed back when Bulgarian MEPs attempted to water down the Parliament’s recognition of a distinct Macedonian identity in North Macedonia, Waitz said.

The issue escalated quickly in Sofia, with officials pushing for the report to be dropped altogether.

The Bulgarian prime minister called European Parliament President Roberta Metsola in the run-up to the vote to try and force a delay, according to three parliamentary aides granted anonymity to speak freely. Metsola’s spokesperson and the Bulgarian government did not respond to a request to confirm that such a phone call had taken place.

The report that failed to see a vote — agreed on by the four main political groups in Parliament and seen by POLITICO — did in fact include mentions about the need to protect North Macedonia’s Bulgarian minority from hate speech and hate crimes.

Bulgarian government officials and members of the European Parliament accused Waitz of concealing lobbying meetings with North Macedonian officials, claiming he favored North Macedonia’s demands while leaking them confidential information and ignoring Bulgarian input.

Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev said the letter was written in response to statements by North Macedonia’s prime minister “who in several consecutive statements himself admits that he has worked with the rapporteur in recent months.”

Waitz’s office denies any particular collaboration with the North Macedonian government, though it admitted he was late to declare meetings per the Parliament’s voluntary 30-day rule. He was poised to declare them before the end of the negotiations, the office said.

Waitz told POLITICO it is standard to meet with officials from the country the report is about, not its neighbor.

Bulgarian politicians are doing everything they can to knock down the report, Waitz said, “including smear campaigns, fake accusations of being corrupt, fake accusations of being biased.”

He showed POLITICO several threatening messages he received after his phone number was leaked on Bulgarian extreme-right social media accounts.

The smear campaigns, he said, are trying “to slow down North Macedonia’s EU accession process.”

Kovatchev said: “We want good neighborly relations, we want [North Macedonia] not to waste any more time …. and immediately begin [EU] membership negotiations.”

This story has been updated.