Bulgarian parliament to reject any ‘plan B’ for North Macedonia

The Bulgarian parliament is preparing a declaration to reject recent attempts to push through a ‘plan B” to unlock the start of EU accession talks with North Macedonia, EUalive has learned. The declaration calls on Skopje to adopt a plan on protecting the rights of minorities.

According to our sources, Bulgaria’s MPs will react to what is seen as an attempt by Skopje to avoid changing its constitution to include the Bulgarian minority.

Bulgaria has blocked North Macedonia’s EU accession talks since 2020, citing unresolved historical and cultural issues as well as anti-Bulgarian policy which negatively affects the Bulgarians in the neighbouring country. In 2022, Bulgaria lifted its veto and supported the “French proposal” (agreed at EU level under French Presidency) designed to allow Skopje to start negotiations with the EU on the condition that it changes its constitution adding the Bulgarian minority among the other minorities listed in it. However, these negotiations have not begun, because Hristijan Mickoski’s government firmly opposes to change the constitution, despite the commitment of the former parliament of his country. Instead, Mickoski speaks of “creative solutions” to unlock the accession talks.

On 15 May the President of the European Council António Costa encountered a significant obstacle in Skopje, where Mickoski firmly rejected amending the constitution to include the Bulgarian minority – a key EU condition for advancing the country’s EU accession process. Nevertheless Costa dismissed any possibility of renegotiating the 2022 agreement, urging North Macedonia to focus on implementing “plan A” – the agreed-upon conditions for accession, based on changing the constitution to include the Bulgaria minority.

Costa faces resistance in Skopje as Mickoski rejects constitutional changes

But on 23 May, EU Commission Vice President and High Representative for foreign policy Kaja Kallas also visited Skopje and issued a different message. Asked by a journalist about Mickoski’s statements that he believes the EU will find “mechanisms” to de-block the process, she answered:

“We know that there are obstacles on the way, and we were discussing those as well to find really mechanisms to overcome these obstacles. So, of course, the Prime Minister can explain his ideas better, but I think there is definitely room [to] operate. I would not go into details if we move on. Then, of course, we will let also the press know.”

Austria has reportedly offered to mediate in the dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia over the inclusion of the Bulgarian minority in the Constitution.

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger visited Skopje on 16 May. She offered Vienna as a neutral venue for high-level talks between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, although Bulgaria sees no reason to negotiate something that has been agreed at the European level.

North Macedonian President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova told Radio Free Europe that she welcomed Vienna’s gesture but remained cautious about the results. She warned that even if negotiations with Sofia were to begin, they could be derailed by new Bulgarian demands.

On 26 May EUalive asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria to comment the hints about a “plan B” and the reports of Austian mediation between Skopje and Sofia. No reply has been received since. But EUalive learned that a declaration was under preparation in the Bulgarian Parliament, which would made it clear that any “creative solutions” would be rejected by Sofia.

The Bulgarian MPs are expected to state that there is nothing to negotiate, because the issue is not bilateral – it is based on EU Council Conclusions from July 2022.

Instead, the text, seen by EUalive, calls on EU institutions to continue to press Skopje for guaranteeing the rights of the Bulgarians in North Macedonia, as well as of the other minorities, and to present a plan of action, containing concrete measures to achieve this goal.

Asked why Brussels appears to speak with contradictory voices, Boyko Noev, a former diplomat and former defence minister in two governments, told EUalive that the EU position adopted in 2022 does not appeal to the government of the nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE of Mickoski, because it explicitly points out the need for constitutional guarantees for the equality of Macedonian Bulgarians, along with all other ethnic groups there.

“After decades of repression and restrictions, the recognition that there are Bulgarians living in the Republic of North Macedonia, and only those who have received Bulgarian citizenship by origin number over 100 thousand, is a heavy blow to the nationalist policy of Macedonism,” he commented.

Constitutional equality for Bulgarians means their right to their own language, culture, quotas in the state administration and a number of other explicitly regulated rights – as for everyone else, Noev said.

Instead, the government of Mickoski is instigating political trials against North Macedonia citizens who express their Bulgarian ethnicity, he reminded.

Sofia warns Skopje ahead of sentencing in ‘landmark’ court case

Update: MPs passed the resolution on Friday without a single vote against – an extremely rare unanimous act of the Bulgarian parliament.

Caption: North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski (R) and European Commission’s Vice-President and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas (L) shake hands after their joint press conference in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, 23 May 2025. [EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI]