The three largest parties in the European Parliament — the European People’s Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Renew Europe have reached an agreement to remove all references to ''Macedonian identity'' and ''Macedonian language'' from the EP draft report on North Macedonia’s progress. This was done at the request of the EPP, MEP Andrey Kovatchev said in a Facebook post. He expects the amendment to be supported by the majority in the European Parliament during next week’s plenary session.

• MEP Ivaylo Valchev: All Bulgarian MEPs are united on the North Macedonia issue

• The AFET adopted a draft report on Skopje's progress and rejected the amendments proposed by Bulgaria

"Topics of identity and language have no place in a report on the progress of an EU candidate country'', Andrey Kovatchev pointed out. According to him, such topics only cause division and open a Pandora’s box. ''In this particular case, this is confirmed by the constant statements of the powerholders in Skopje and especially by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, with his manipulations about ''centuries-old identity and language'', MEP Kovatchev added, as quoted by BTA.

Published and translated by Kostadin Atanasov

Photo: European Parliament