The message from Enlargement Commissioner Kos is confirmation of the issues caused by certain countries using bilateral issues on the path toward EU membership, PM Mickoski stated on Wednesday. He added that was precisely why he had repeatedly pointed that out and insisted that changing the Constitution to include Bulgarians should take place at the end of the entire process so that no new conditions were imposed.
When it comes to the EC’s proposal, presented on Tuesday, to remove the veto in enlargement processes regarding bilateral disputes not related to enlargement, the PM said that some member states were abusing their membership.
Meanwhile, at the EP’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), MEPs were divided on the unanimity-veto issue. The Rapporteur on North Macedonia, Thomas Waitz, believes that though unanimity is an important step and it should continue to be used for starting negotiations and admitting a new member, it shouldn’t be used during intermediate steps such as the opening of clusters.
On the other hand, Bulgarian MEP Stanislav Stoyanov said that abolishing unanimity would be a rushed step and that there should be no rushing in terms of admitting candidates that were not ready for membership.
“For example, North Macedonia, where human rights are violated”, he added.