Mickoski Wants a “No New Veto” Guarantee While Sofia and Brussels Pass the Question Back and Forth
The prime minister says he expects a guarantee for citizens that there will be no new veto, and the government wants constitutional changes to take effect only after negotiations conclude; Bulgaria, he says, has not agreed.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski on October 8 restated Macedonia’s latest demand: “The only thing we expect at this moment is a certain guarantee that citizens should receive” that there will be no new veto. The government’s position is unchanged: the constitutional changes should take effect once the membership negotiations are completed. According to Mickoski, Bulgaria has so far not agreed to that proposal.
The second demand is that the European Commission and the EU get more actively involved in the talks. Mickoski says he is receiving contradictory messages: Sofia claims the issue is between Macedonia and the EU, but when Skopje proposes talks with Brussels, the Bulgarian side asks for an agreement with it. He called this message contradictory and said there is no readiness to consider the proposals.
Meanwhile, according to a report by Lider, the European Commission is proposing gradual integration for candidates, under which new members would have no veto over enlargement. That is precisely the guarantee Skopje is seeking, only at EU level rather than bilaterally. Whether it arrives in time and whether it satisfies Sofia is still open — and the Sofia meeting a day earlier showed that positions are “very distant.”
MKNews Hub · Macedonia · October 9, 2026
