North Macedonia¶
The North Macedonian cases show accession turned into a sequence of demands on the country’s identity, with Brussels holding the door and a neighbour setting the price. Compliance has been learned as a skill and has yielded little, so each new demand meets a public with less reason to believe the next concession will be the last. A party that opposed the bargain now governs and asks for guarantees rather than refusing, which shows how far the terms of debate have moved.
The clerk’s briefs¶
From the clerks, for the Patrician’s eyes
Not urgent. Citizens who identify as Bulgarian wait to be named in a constitution their neighbours are arguing over, and the rest of the country waits on the same line for accession. Pro-European parties lose credibility with each unrewarded concession, and nationalists gain an argument. If the government gives way without guarantees, other neighbours with grievances learn how the queue works; if it holds out, the stall becomes the policy. A Union willing to separate accession from bilateral disputes would change the terms.
July 2026: Guarantees first¶
On 8 July 2026 the EU enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, said that “the adoption of the agreed constitutional amendments remains the necessary next step”. The centre-right government led by Mickoski has stressed that it will not act without guarantees that Bulgaria will not block the country again further down the line. The clerks note that a neighbour’s demand still sets the terms for the constitution, and that the government now wants a promise that the neighbour will not come back with another.
June 2026: Parliament regrets¶
The European Parliament’s report on North Macedonia, adopted on 17 June 2026, regretted “the lack of progress since their last report” and called for the “necessary constitutional amendments” to “include all ethnic communities in the constitution”. The clerks note that the accession now waits on a constitutional change the country has not made.
July 2022: The French proposal¶
On 16 July 2022 parliament approved the French proposal with 68 votes of 120, committing the country to change its constitution “to recognise a Bulgarian minority” in return for the opening of accession talks. The change itself needs 80 votes. The main opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, and its allies said they “will never agree to change the constitution”. The clerks note that a neighbour’s consent has been bought with a line in the constitution that has not yet been written, and that the party opposing it could one day hold the pen.