{"id":466721,"date":"2026-10-02T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/02\/von-der-leyen-punta-a-sbloccare-lo-stallo-tra-macedonia-del-nord-e-bulgaria\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T17:29:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:29:56","slug":"von-der-leyen-aims-to-break-the-deadlock-between-north-macedonia-and-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/02\/von-der-leyen-aims-to-break-the-deadlock-between-north-macedonia-and-bulgaria\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen aims to break the deadlock between North Macedonia and Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 A first step towards breaking the deadlock between Skopje and Sofia over the issue of recognition of Bulgarian minorities in North Macedonia could come next week. This would pave the way for the Western Balkan country\u2019s path towards the EU. The announcement was made by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,<\/strong> during the visit to Skopje<\/a>, where she met the North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan<\/strong> Mickoski<\/strong>. At the heart of the discussions was the stalemate in the accession process, which has been at a standstill for years due to Bulgaria\u2019s as-yet unmet demands for amendments to the North Macedonian Constitution within the framework of the agreement reached between the two countries. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have agreed to take a first step next week to try to break the deadlock and get the process back on track,\u201d von der Leyen said at a press conference. The President of the European Commission emphasised that North Macedonia is missing \u201cthe final step\u201d required to open the first group of negotiation chapters, namely those covering \u201cfundamentals.\u201d The sticking point remains the constitutional amendments required to include the Bulgarian minority amongst the communities recognised by the North Macedonian Constitution<\/strong>. This is an issue that has contributed to the stalemate in the accession process and which Skopje has so far struggled to address. <\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Macedonia belongs in the EU,\u201d<\/strong> von der Leyen reiterated, while assuring that its accession must take place \u201cwith full respect for its identity and language.\u201d \u201cWe believe that Macedonian culture and language can only enrich our Union,\u201d she added, referring to the European motto \u201cunited in diversity.\u201d <\/p>\n

Relations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia are characterised by a long-standing dispute over national identity, which in recent years has become intertwined with the country\u2019s path to EU accession. Sofia disputes certain interpretations by Skopje regarding Macedonian national identity<\/strong>, particularly concerning the language and shared historical figures, while calling for compliance with the commitments set out in the 2017 Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighbourliness. <\/p>\n

In 2020, Bulgaria blocked the start of Skopje\u2019s accession negotiations, calling for progress on historical issues and the implementation of the treaty. The compromise reached in 2022 stipulates, amongst other things, that North Macedonia must amend its Constitution to include Bulgarians amongst the recognised communities. That amendment has not yet been approved and currently represents the main obstacle to the actual opening of accession negotiations.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The first concrete step could come in a matter of days, right here in Bulgaria. Mickoski explained that von der Leyen had suggested he make the most of the North Macedonian Foreign Minister\u2019s visit to Sofia next week, as part of the Corridor 8 projects \u2013 a strategic transport and energy corridor linking Italy (starting from the Apulian ports of Bari and Brindisi) to the Black Sea, passing through Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. This will be the opportunity for von der Leyen and Mickoski to request a bilateral meeting with their Bulgarian counterpart. \u201cI have asked the minister to request a meeting with his counterpart and to set the process in motion,\u201d <\/strong>confirmed Mickoski, announcing that a diplomatic note would be sent. The aim is \u201cto start moving the process forward\u201d and to reopen dialogue between the two countries. <\/p>\n

According to von der Leyen, once the deadlock has been broken, the process could move forward rapidly. \u201cOnce we have unblocked the situation, my personal view is that we can move very quickly with North Macedonia, because we are already working intensively on the necessary reforms,\u201d she said. The Commission President did, however, warn that \u201cthere is still a lot of work to be done,\u201d while describing Skopje\u2019s achievements to date on the reform front as \u201cimpressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement comes on the eve of another stage in the enlargement process:<\/strong> next week, the Commission will present its reviews of pre-enlargement policies. Brussels will examine the EU\u2019s institutions, policies, and budget to assess what changes are needed ahead of the accession of new Member States. \u201cWe must ensure that the EU is ready to grow,\u201d explained von der Leyen, citing the protection of democratic values and the rule of law as key priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Relations between Sofia and Skopje are characterised by a dispute over identity and history, which in recent years has become intertwined with the Western Balkan country\u2019s path to accession<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":466703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25871,26929,27334,28020,27818,29130,33238,36070,35960,26030],"class_list":["post-466721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-inbulgaria","tag-enlargement","tag-adesione-ue-2-en","tag-hristijan-mickoski-en","tag-northernmacedonia-en","tag-skopje","tag-sofia","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-western-balkans-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466722,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466721\/revisions\/466722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}