Parliament and Government Approve French Proposal for EU Accession

The Parliament of North Macedonia adopted on Saturday the French proposal for the EU membership negotiation framework for Skopje, which is also expected to result with lift of the Bulgarian veto for the EU integration of North Macedonia. With 68 votes in favour and no votes against, the Parliament adopted the conclusions related to the French proposal filed by the coordinators of the MP groups of SDSM and DUI, Jovan Mitreski and Arber Ademi respectively, and forwarded them to the government for final ratification. The MPs from VMRO-DPMNE and Levica left the hall in the Parliament right before the vote took place, while MPs Pavle Trajanov from Democratic Union and Maja Moracanin from DOM, even though part of the ruling majority, abstained from voting. Before leaving the hall, VMRO-DPMNE MP Aleksandar Nikoloski said that the MPs are about to commit one of the greatest treacheries since the country declared independence, adding that the new generations will remembers them in negative contexts full of hatred and despise. VMRO-DPMNE Igor Janusev went a step further, telling PM Dimitar Kovacevski and all ministers and MPs from SDSM and DUI that when time comes, they will pay for this treachery with prison sentences. With the conclusions, the Parliament bounds the government to insist on inclusion of the Macedonian language in the EU accession talks without any additional explanations or footnotes attached to it, and to initiate the accession processes right after the first inter-governmental conference between official Brussels and Skopje. Later on Saturday, the Government adopted the Parliamentary conclusions, and thus fully approved the French proposal for the EU membership negotiations framework. “Next week, on 19 July, in Brussels, I shall read our opening statement in the start of the accession processes in Macedonian language. Finally, after 17 years sitting in the waiting room of the EU, we are only days away from starting the accession negotiations, and the Macedonian language remains fully protected and intact in the process,” Kovacevski said at a press conference after the adoption of the French proposal.