Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

"Strasbourg Calling" Before the report on North Macedonia and the red light "Macedonian identity and language"

Bulgarian MEPs Ivaylo Valchev and Andrey Kovatchev talk to BNR

Photo: BTA

"What we have let slip, we have let slip over the last 20 years, not yesterday or the day before."

This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by Ivaylo Valchev, MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), before today's vote in the EP on the report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia on its path to EU membership.

It was important to engage high-level Bulgarian institutions to respond to the claims of the Macedonian side at this level, he emphasized.

According to him, the Macedonian side is lobbying extremely hard, and their Prime Minister says he knows who will vote how.

"The question remains how many people in the hall will support "identity and language".


Ivaylo Valchev (left) and Andrey Kovatchev
Nowhere has the word "centuries-old" been mentioned before. Mr. Mickoski's interpretation that the EP will recognize a centuries-old identity and language does not correspond to the truth, assured MEP Andrey Kovatchev from the European People's Party (EPP) in the live studio of the BNR from Strasbourg called "Strasbourg Calling".

The younger generations cannot be educated to hate their neighbors, he expressed his opinion.

The main political groups - the EPP, the socialists and the liberals - have jointly submitted "amendments to delete and remove the texts that refer to Macedonian identity and the Macedonian language", reminded Kovatchev.

"These are the main amendments that we are following."

Andrey Kovatchev expressed his expectation that most MEPs would follow the requests of their political formations during the vote.

Overcoming the Yugoslav-communist doctrine is very difficult, the MEP admitted.

In his words, "the fight against Bulgarians" must be overcome, because ideological overtones have no place, and those in power in Skopje are "bringing the RSM into the Serbian world."

Read also:


English publication: Rositsa Petkova


Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Balkan developments

First Azeri gas shipment for Ukraine across Bulgaria and Romania Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Naftogaz signed its first agreement with the Azeri state-owned oil and gas corporation SOCAR for the import of natural gas along the Transbalkan..

updated on 8/1/25 1:12 PM
Her Excellency Dai Qingli, China’s Ambassador to Bulgaria

Membership of the Schengen area and the eurozone expands the common ground between Bulgaria and China

Diplomatic relations between China and the European Union span over half a century and have delivered substantial economic gains. “Trade between China and Europe has grown from 2.4 billion to almost 786 billion US dollars, with today’s daily volume..

published on 7/28/25 6:17 PM
Mindaugas Laukagalis, Angelina Piskova, Irina Nedeva, Brigitte Rambossek (from left to right)

"Strasbourg Calling" Austrian journalist Brigitte Rambossek: The fight for media freedom is a fight for democracy

"There was definitely more tension in this session of the European Parliament." This was commented by Angelina Piskova, BNR correspondent for the European institutions during a journalist round table in the programme "Strasbourg Calling" broadcast..

published on 7/12/25 10:54 AM