The European Union proposal presented by France during the Presidency of the EU, known as the ‘modified French proposal’, has caused riots for several days in the capital of North Macedonia. Hundreds protestors, some of them masked, have expressed their dissatisfaction in a violent way by throwing stones and bottles with flammable materials in direction of the Macedonian Parliament, Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Protesters are demanding that the government authority in North Macedonia to reject the European Union’s proposal. Strong objections by hundred citizens in Skopje, called for protest by the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, have turned into violent protests with gunshots and risk turning into inter-ethnic incidents between Macedonians and Albanians who live there, since anti-Albanian calls were also heard in the protests. Such a thing would create space for scenarios from ‘third parties’ that aim to destabilize the country. Let’s remember that inter-ethnic incidents are not few in the North Macedonia past.
But let’s go back to the French So-called ‘French proposal’ which as the first version appeared in June and it was rejected by the North Macedonian government. Macedonian Prime Minister Kovacevski last month declared for the first version of this document that in the form it is now is unacceptable for him as prime minister, for the president of the country, as well as for North Macedonia as a whole.
Despite the second version of this proposal, the Macedonian Government has accepted it in principle. The modified French proposal aims to resolve the disagreement between Bulgaria and North Macedonia regarding the historical and linguistic dispute, which Bulgaria opened through a 6-page document sent to the EU, immediately after the accession of Bulgaria to NATO in 2020. North Macedonia had a similar disagreement with Greece, for which in 2018 a compromise was reached to change its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia, all this, because of a region with the same name in Greece, but apparently this did not happen to resolve all the problems for North Macedonia. Bulgaria’s claims, of course, have delayed the process of membership of NM in the European Union, but not only that.
Seeing the impasse between the two countries and the unwillingness to solve this contest by itself, few days ago France came out with a 7-points proposal for North Macedonia, which, as stated in the proposal, would advance the agenda of EU reforms and for tangible and sustainable result achieved. The modified French proposal was also examined by the coalition partners of the Macedonian Government, who considered it as acceptable proposal and a closing chapter for the language and identity dispute between the official Skopje and Sofia. Meanwhile, President of NM Stevo Pendarovski, named France’s proposal a “transitional compromise” to start membership talks with the European Union, but added that an annex should be added to the proposal if the Bulgarian side insists on negotiating the Macedonian language and identity, although the proposal is considered not to affect the identity, cultural, linguistic and historical features of the North Macedonian people.
This proposal has the support of 27 European Union countries and is seen by political experts as a momentum for North Macedonia that should not be released, because otherwise it would penalize the country from the perspective of EU integration. Rejection of this proposal would lead North Macedonia to another delay for the opening of negotiations for EU membership. For two years now, Bulgaria has blocked the beginning of the accession talks of North Macedonia through its veto, also delaying Albania on the way to EU accession. The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, has also called upon the NMacedonia government to accept the French proposal, otherwise Rama has declared that Albania will continue its path to EU separated from North Macedonia.
