Constitutional Amendment Now, But With Delayed Effect — Mickoski's Proposal Brussels Hasn't Confirmed

The government has a proposal for the constitutional amendment adding Bulgarians to the Preamble to be adopted now — but with delayed effect, taking legal force only once EU accession negotiations conclude and parliaments of all EU member states ratify the accession treaty. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski put forward the idea in an interview with the Atlantic Council in Washington.

The idea solves a political problem for the government itself: the amendment is formally adopted, but its legal effect is postponed until a point when the process would likely already be irreversible. Mickoski argued that breaking off dialogue with Bulgaria would send the wrong message and isolate the country — while at the same time insisting there is no guarantee that adding Bulgarians to the Constitution will close the issue for good.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, in a 17 September interview with BNT, spoke of a different sequence: that the constitutional change is already agreed with all 27 member states and must be implemented — without specifying whether she accepts the delayed-effect proposal as sufficient.

So the two sides disagree not only over whether the Constitution should change, but over the sequence: whether the amendment takes effect as soon as it's adopted, or only once the entire accession process is closed. That second question, for now, remains without a clear answer from Brussels.

MKNews Hub · Politics · September 19, 2026