Political reactions after the news about decoupling Albania-North Macedonia EU accession path

The news that Brussels is giving the green light to Tirana and imposing a ban for now on Skopje's negotiation process caused a reaction from the parliamentary groups.

The leader of the largest group in Bulgaria's Parliament, Boyko Borissov, who is also chairman of the foreign affairs committee, called for calm and sensible comments from the parliamentary parties. There is currently an extraordinary meeting of the foreign affairs committee, which is expected to come up with a draft declaration that will be presented to the plenary and voted on by the Bulgarian National Assembly.

"I want to assure the Bulgarian people that everything we have done in the European People's Party, the European Council and the European Commission to make ourselves heard. This is how European institutions work: no threats, no insults. Albania is moving forward, and our colleagues in the Republic of North Macedonia should deal with the consequnces of their behaviour," he said.

“We Continue the Change” co-leader Kiril Petkov: The French proposal proved to be very good for Bulgaria. Petkov added that the entire European Union chose to stand on Bulgaria's side. He stated that the Republic of North Macedonia must decide whether it wants to acknowledge the Bulgarians as an ethnic minority in its Constitution or otherwise its path to the EU would close down.

North Macedonia refused to meet the conditions of agreements it has signed with Bulgaria and the EU. It was necessary to make a decision to show that if you do not want to observe the agreements, the other side will not honour its commitments to you either," Kostadin Kostadinov, the leader of Vazrazhdane said.

Borislav Gutsanov, BSP for Bulgaria, that the decision of Brussels to decouple Albania’s EU accession path from the Republic of North Macedonia’s is a normal response, especially considering the rhetoric coming from officials from North Macedonia.

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The Republic of North Macedonia is not living up to the commitments it itself signed for the EU accession negotiating framework, Toshko Yordanov of "There Is Such a People" said.

In his words, the Republic of North Macedonia cannot "even hope" to start negotiations, especially with the unreasonable statements of their leaders and the "insane demand" they made in the European Parliament (EP) to renegotiate the terms. The most normal thing is for North Macedonia to stay where they are - outside the EU, and they will never start negotiations if they do not change their behaviour and include the Bulgarians into their Constitution, Yordanov pointed out.

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Albania’s EU accession path will be decoupled from North Macedonia’s.

This became clear on September 26 after a meeting of the Union's permanent representatives in Brussels, where a unanimous decision was taken to start negotiations with Tirana for full membership.

This should be formalised at the second EU-Albania intergovernmental conference, which will be held in Luxembourg on 15 October.

The first group of negotiating chapters on "Fundamental Issues" is expected to be opened then.