On Wednesday, with 411 votes in favor and 120 against, the EP passed Rapporteur and MEP Waitz’s Report on North Macedonia’s progress on the EU path.
However, his amendment seeking the deletion of Paragraph 73, which calls on the Joint Historical Commission to achieve concrete results in accordance with the second protocol to the Good Neighborliness Treaty, was not supported. It foresaw that the Commission’s work should be based on objective, authentic, and proven historical sources and documents.
In the debate on the document, MEP Waitz emphasized that North Macedonia had achieved results in the Reform Agenda, which the EU should value.
PM Mickoski, before the vote, had stated that the aforementioned amendment should be passed because it was an opportunity for the EU to prove that bilateral issues were not an obstacle to integration. A few hours before the vote, however, all 17 Bulgarian MEPs sent a joint letter to their counterparts condemning the arson attack on diplomatic vehicles of Bulgaria’s Embassy.