The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee agreed today to postpone the vote on the report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) towards the EU at the proposal of rapporteur Thomas Weitz. The vote in the parliamentary committee is scheduled to take place on June 24, and in the EP plenary hall in Strasbourg - in July.
There was a tense political debate around this report, Weitz noted. I fully support my report, all parliamentary groups participated in the negotiations. The report is of the EP and does not aim to resolve bilateral problems between Bulgaria and the RNM. The issue of the attitude towards minorities is a European issue, he added.
MEP Ivaylo Valchev (EKR/ITN) thanked Weitz for his decision and described it as wise, timely and responsible. Valchev called for another meeting to be convened to clear up the sensitive issues on the document before June 24.
MEP Svetoslav Stoyanov (ESN/"Vazrazhdane") welcomed Weitz's proposal and described it as a manifestation of common sense. He expressed his expectation that the EP leadership will investigate the facts and circumstances of the irregularities identified in the preparation of the report.
All Bulgarian MEPs have sent a letter expressing doubts regarding the report and reporting irregularities, including unauthorized and premature leakage of internal parliamentary information, key elements of the draft document and compromise amendments, to officials in Skopje, the GERB/EPP press service reported. An example is the statement of the Prime Minister of the RSM Hristiyan Mickoski from June 1 that he was familiar with the report in great detail in advance.
Mickoski claims that no specific proposals from MEPs will be adopted in the final version of the report. This concerns, for example, the request to include the word "current" when mentioning "Macedonian language and identity", which would bring the text in line with the approved negotiating framework. The request is from the shadow rapporteur Ivaylo Valchev and was sent only to the shadow rapporteurs, the advisors working on the file and the secretariat of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, but less than 24 hours later, Mickoski was informed of the request, the statement notes. It adds that Mickoski's claim that his government had worked on this report for 11 months together with the rapporteur to reach such a result is disturbing.
These revelations, made before the conclusion of the negotiations between the shadow rapporteurs, indicate a continuous leak of information or even worse - a breach in the security of the servers and mail of EP staff by foreign countries, the Bulgarian MEPs point out.