SKOPJE (Reuters) – Lawmakers in North Macedonia may vote this weekend on a French-brokered deal aimed at settling disputes with Bulgaria and clearing the way to long-due European Union membership talks, a parliamentary official said on Friday.
The official spoke to Reuters on the second day of bitter debate in parliament marked by jeering and horn-blowing by opposition deputies, and protesters outside the chamber, during speeches by ruling party lawmakers in support of the deal.
The parliamentary official said that, depending on the course of debate, a vote to ratify the deal could be held Saturday or Sunday.
The deal proposes that North Macedonia’s constitution be amended to recognise a Bulgarian minority, while the remaining issues would be discussed between Skopje and Sofia. The proposal does not require Bulgaria to recognise the Macedonian language.
In exchange Bulgaria will allow its West Balkan neighbour to start membership talks with the EU.The main opposition nationalist VMRE-DPMNE party bloc has spearheaded daily protests since the beginning of July over the deal they said endangers the Macedonian language and identity.”With this agreement Macedonia will be a hostage as Bulgaria as it would exercise a veto based on whatever condition we fail to fulfil (in EU accession process)…Therefore have courage and take the side of the truth, justice and the Macedonian people,” Petar Risteski, a VMRO-DPMNE lawmaker, said during the debate.Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski said that the compromise commissioned by France was “the best possible solution at the moment, but also for the coming period.”
Bulgaria’s parliament lifted its veto on Macedonian-EU talks last month. This also triggered protests in Bulgaria and contributed to a no-confidence vote that toppled the government.
North Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic, has been a candidate for EU membership for 17 years but approval for talks was first blocked by Greece and then by Bulgaria.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, editing by Mark Heinrich)
