The Bulgarian Parliament has approved the proposal of the French Presidency of the Council of the EU for the start of negotiations for the membership of North Macedonia in the EU.

This was done through a draft decision submitted by the co-chair of "Democratic Bulgaria" Hristo Ivanov, in which it is stated that Bulgaria will support every step of the European integration process of Northern Macedonia in specifying the negotiating framework and the conclusions of the Council for it. ensured the inclusion of Bulgarians in the Macedonian constitution "where other peoples are mentioned and on equal terms with these peoples".

Approval and acceptance by the dismissed government of Kiril Petkov could lead to the lifting of the veto for Skopje, enabling the EU to open membership negotiations with Albania as well.

The draft resolutions confirm support for the French proposal, but only under the following conditions: to guarantee the inclusion of the Bulgarian minority in the constitution of North Macedonia, just like other minorities; to clearly reflect the fact that nothing in the accession process of North Macedonia to the EU can be interpreted as recognition of the Macedonian language by the Republic of Bulgaria; The EU should guarantee that good neighborliness remains a criterion during the accession process.

Thus, the situation in the Bulgarian parliament is not calm, as groups of deputies are totally against the French proposal and consider its approval a betrayal.

But approving Macron's plan is not expected to be a problem as most lawmakers support it./A2