Accession of North Macedonia to the European Union has been on the agenda for future enlargement of the EU since 2005, when it became an official candidate for accession. The then-Republic of Macedonia submitted its membership application in 2004, thirteen years after its independence from Yugoslavia. It is one of nine current EU candidate countries, together with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
The use of the country name "Macedonia" was the object of a dispute with neighbouring Greece between 1991 and 2019, resulting in a Greek veto against EU and NATO accession talks, which lasted from 2008 to 2019. After the issue was resolved, the EU gave its formal approval to begin accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania in March 2020.
However, in November 2020, Bulgaria effectively blocked the official start of North Macedonia's EU accession negotiations over what it perceives as slow progress on the implementation of the 2017 friendship treaty between the two countries, state-supported or tolerated hate speech and minority claims towards Macedonians in Bulgaria.
On 24 June 2022, Bulgaria's parliament approved lifting the country's veto on opening EU accession talks with North Macedonia. On 16 July 2022, the Assembly of North Macedonia also approved the revised French proposal, allowing accession negotiations to begin. The start of negotiations was officially launched on 19 July 2022. Continued support for North Macedonia’s EU path has been expressed by senior EU officials, including the EU Ambassador in Skopje, Michalis Rokas, who has emphasised that his primary mandate is to assist the country in joining the EU as swiftly as possible, highlighting the Union's unwavering commitment to support the integration process through necessary reforms that yield tangible benefits for its citizens. To make progress, however, the country must change its constitution to officially recognize local Bulgarians as an ethnic minority, and overcome the latent opposition of neighbouring Bulgaria. However, several parties have consistently blocked the parliamentary passage of the required constitutional amendment.
History
The Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) began its formal process of rapprochement with the European Union in 2000, by initiating negotiations about the EU's Stabilisation and Association Process, and it became the first non-EU country in the Balkans to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), on 9 April 2001 in Luxembourg. The agreement was ratified by the Macedonian parliament on 12 April 2001 and came into force on 1 April 2004.
On 22 March 2004, the Republic of Macedonia submitted its application for EU membership. On 6 September 2004, the Macedonian government adopted a National Strategy for European integration, supported by the country's parliament through its Commission for European Issues. The government subsequently began the procedure of answering the questionnaire of the European Commission regarding its performance in preparation for membership in accordance with the Copenhagen criteria, a process that was finished by 31 January 2005. The European Council officially granted the country candidate status on 17 December 2005, after a review and a positive recommendation of the candidacy by the European Commission.
After the naming dispute with Greece was solved in 2019, accession negotiations were expected to start within the same year, but in June 2019 the EU General Affairs Council decided to postpone the decision to October, due to objections from a number of countries including the Netherlands and France. France vetoed the decision again in October. On 25 March 2020 the Council of the European Union decided to open accession negotiations, which was endorsed by the European Council the following day.
On 17 November 2020 Bulgaria blocked the official start of accession talks with the country.Bulgaria blocks EU membership talks for North Macedonia, Politico, 17 November 2020. North Macedonia was told to offer further guarantees to Bulgaria that it would honour the 2017 friendship treaty, which deals with historical issues.Mind our language: Bulgaria blocks North Macedonia's EU path. Sofia raises opposition to neighbour's accession hopes citing failure to respect history. Guardian 17 Nov 2020.
Name dispute with Greece
A major obstacle for the accession process was the country's unresolved dispute with Greece over its name, as Greece argued that it implied territorial ambitions towards Greece's own northern province of Macedonia. While the country preferred to be called by its constitutional name, Republic of Macedonia, the European Union, in acknowledgment of concerns raised by Greece, maintained a practice of recognising it only as the "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", a compromise of "provisional reference" introduced by the United Nations in 1993. Greece, as any other EU country, has veto power against new accessions, and blocked Macedonian accession due to the naming dispute."Report by B. Khiotis: «Εγώ δεν είπα ποτέ τη λέξη βέτο» ("I never used the word veto"), To Vima, 11 September 2007
On 12 June 2018, an agreement was reached between Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev, known as the Prespa agreement, under which the country would be renamed the "Republic of North Macedonia". As part of this deal, Greece explicitly withdrew its previous opposition, allowing the EU to approve on 26 June 2018 a pathway to starting accession talks.
Historical and linguistic dispute with Bulgaria
Although Bulgaria was the first country to recognise the independence of the then Republic of Macedonia, most of its academics, as well as the general public, do not recognise the Macedonian language and nation formed after the Second World War as being separate from Bulgarian proper.Bernard A. Cook, Andrej Alimoved ed., Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia, Volume 2; Europe Since 1945, Taylor & Francis, 2001; , pp. 810-811. As part of the efforts to find a solution to the Macedonia name dispute with Greece, the Macedonian constitution was changed twice (in 1995, and then again in 2018) to formally exclude any possible territorial aspirations towards neighbouring countries.
Macedonia and Bulgaria signed a friendship treaty to improve their complicated relations in August 2017. A joint commission on historical and educational issues was formed in 2018 to serve as a forum where controversial historical and educational issues could be raised and discussed. This commission has made little progress in its work for a period of one year.Georgi Gotev, Borissov warns North Macedonia against stealing Bulgarian history. EURACTIV.com. 20 June 2019.
In October 2019, Bulgaria set out a "Framework position" warning that it would block the accession process unless North Macedonia fulfilled demands regarding anti-Bulgarian ideology in the country,Sinisa Jakov Marusic, Bulgaria Sets Tough Terms for North Macedonia's EU Progress Skopje. BIRN; 10 October 2019. and ultimately over an "ongoing nation-building process" based on historical negationism of the Bulgarian identity, culture and legacy in the broader region of Macedonia.
Bulgarian politicians claim North Macedonia remains the only country in NATO, that is an EU-candidate, whose politics is based on communist historical and linguistic dogmas accepted by ASNOM.Ковачев: Никој не сака да го земе Делчев, тој е на Македонија, тој е и на Бугарија. 18 септември 2020, МКД.мк. On the other hand, researchers claim that Bulgaria's official positions towards Macedonia are rooted in ideological positions dating back to the communist period under Todor Zhivkov. Concerning the Macedonian language, Bulgaria advises the EU to avoid using the term "Macedonian language" during the accession talks, and instead use the term "Official language of Republic of North Macedonia", reaffirming that it does not recognise the language as separate from Bulgarian. In North Macedonia this is widely perceived as a direct attack on its national identity and language.
In September 2020, Bulgaria sent an explanatory memorandum to the Council of the European Union containing its framework position on the accession of North Macedonia.Bulgaria sends memorandum to the Council on North Macedonia. 9/17/20 Radio Bulgaria. The conditions required North Macedonia to adopt Bulgaria's version of the region's history and renounce any claims regarding the existence of a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, despite repeated European Court of Human Rights rulings urging such recognition, which Bulgaria has ignored. On 17 November 2020, Bulgaria refused to approve the European Union's negotiation framework for North Macedonia, effectively blocking the official start of accession talks with this country over slow progress on the implementation of the 2017 Friendship Treaty between the two countries, state-supported or tolerated hate speech and minority claims towards Bulgaria.
Per political scientists Yorgos Christidis and Florian Bieber, and experts from European think tanks such as the Jacques Delors Institute, DGAP, the Clingendael Institute, and Carnegie Europe, the vetoes have undermined the EU's credibility in North Macedonia and across the Western Balkans. The vetoes also received condemnation by some Bulgarian intellectuals, and criticism from international observers. A survey conducted in November 2020, by Alpha Research of 803 people from all over Bulgaria, found that 83.8% of Bulgarians were against the accession of North Macedonia in the EU until the historical dispute is solved, only 10.2% of Bulgarians supported the accession with the rest not having an opinion.