Before Tuesday’s vote on MEP Thomas Waitz’s draft-report, David McAllister, Chair of the EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), condemned bias accusations against the Rapporteur over contacts from officials from North Macedonia.
As he added, that is wrong because it is necessary for Rapporteur Waitz to hear the position of those officials in order to be able to consider everything during the preparation of the text.
In a written statement, Waitz welcomed the broad political majority’s adoption of the document, stressing that the EU had to stay united with its neighbours in the challenging geopolitical landscape. North Macedonia, he added, belongs in the EU.
As the Rapporteur stated, after 20 years of negotiations, the current good momentum regarding further advancement of the enlargement process had to be maintained.
Also prior to the vote, in addition to amendments filed by Bulgarian MEPs Andrey Kovatchev and Ivaylo Valchev, the EPP’s coordinator, Michael Gahler, proposed an amendment to introduce the word “modern” at four parts before “Macedonian language” and “Macedonian identity”.
However, that one and all amendments filed by the Bulgarian MEPs were rejected.