Ethnic Albanian Party in North Macedonia Proposes EU Accession Deal

The largest party representing the ethnic Albanian minority in North Macedonia has put forth an offer to withdraw its ministers from the government to meet the opposition's demand of paving the way for negotiations on European Union (EU) membership. 

This development has been reported by Euractiv.

The Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) stated that the resignation of its ministers will only take effect if the main opposition nationalist party, VMRO-DPMNE, votes in favor of constitutional changes to recognize the Bulgarian minority, as demanded by Bulgaria, in order to facilitate North Macedonia's EU accession.

Last year, North Macedonia's parliament adopted an agreement brokered by France aimed at resolving the dispute with Bulgaria, which had vetoed negotiations between Macedonia and the EU. Prime Minister of North Macedonia at the time, Dimitar Kovachevski, announced that Skopje had reached a compromise with Bulgaria, allowing the country to begin EU membership negotiations.

Bulgaria lifted its veto conditionally, requiring North Macedonia to make changes to its constitution to recognize the Bulgarian minority. The opposition protested against the agreement, asserting that it should also include a demand for Bulgaria to recognize the Macedonian language.

Both Bulgarians and ethnic Macedonians speak similar languages, and both communities are very sensitive to laws recognizing them as distinct nationalities.

To amend the constitution in the Macedonian parliament, a two-thirds majority is needed. Last month, VMRO-DPMNE stated that they would support the constitutional changes if DUI withdraws from the government, a new coalition government is formed, including opposition parties, and new elections are held.

"Being aware of the hopes and aspirations of citizens to one day become part of the larger European family, we, the ministers and officials from the ranks of the Democratic Union for Integration, submit our resignations, which we are currently executing," stated the letter from DUI to Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, published by local media.

"The resignations, Mr. Prime Minister, will take effect automatically at the moment when the opposition votes in favor of amendments to the Constitution," the letter concludes.

As of now, there has been no immediate response from the government.

In a statement, VMRO-DPMNE called on DUI to leave the government promptly and organize new elections. However, they did not specify the requirement of voting for the support of constitutional changes.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership for 17 years, but the approval of negotiations was initially blocked by Greece and later by Bulgaria. Representatives from the EU have cautioned that membership negotiations and reforms could take years.