Explained: What’s behind North Macedonia’s long road to the European Union? | Explained News,The Indian Express

The most recent obstacle is a veto by EU member Bulgaria. A French proposal for a compromise to address Bulgaria’s concerns has divided North Macedonia, sparking the sometimes violent protests.

Nightly protests in North Macedonia over the past week have left dozens injured. At the heart of the turmoil is the small Balkan country’s long-running quest to join the European Union, a process that has faced one hurdle after the other.

The most recent obstacle is a veto by EU member Bulgaria. A French proposal for a compromise to address Bulgaria’s concerns has divided North Macedonia, sparking the sometimes violent protests. France’s plan also met deep objections in Bulgaria and helped to bring down the government, which had accepted the compromise.

What is the dispute about?

North Macedonia has been an EU candidate for 17 years. The country emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and sought to forge a strong national identity. But in a region where borders and ethnicities have shifted and overlapped over centuries, it was beset by problems from the start.

The country’s chosen name, Macedonia, sparked outrage in neighboring Greece, which said the term harbored expansionist aims against its own province of the same name and was an attempt to usurp Greek history and culture. Athens held up Skopje’s EU and NATO membership bids for years, until a 2019 deal was reached that included the smaller country changing its name to North Macedonia.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/north-macedonia-european-union-protests-8018590/


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