An alleged behind-the-scenes lobbying drive by North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to persuade members of the European Parliament to enshrine explicit recognition of a distinct Macedonian identity and language in the EU’s annual enlargement report has mushroomed into the scandal now known as “Skopjegate.” The affair is rattling Brussels, threatening to stall Skopje’s long-sought accession momentum and reigniting a decades-old dispute with neighbouring Bulgaria.

How the amendments appeared

According to documents reviewed by the Bulgarian news agency BGNES, Austrian Green MEP and rapporteur Thomas Waitz held at least 36 undisclosed meetings with North-Macedonian officials. On 14 May—hours after a closed-door lunch in Brussels attended exclusively by Skopje’s delegation—five MEPs from three different political groups tabled six identical amendments asserting the EU’s recognition of a distinct Macedonian identity and language, wording that later surfaced verbatim in the draft report.

The leak infuriated Bulgarian MEPs, who complained that their own 40-plus counter-amendments were rejected almost wholesale. One of them, Ivaylo Valchev (ECR), filed a protest to EP President Roberta Metsola, calling the episode “external interference in the EU’s internal processes.”

The report that fuelled a hashtag

On 24 June the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) nonetheless adopted the Waitz Report by 40–19, complete with new recital “L” and operative point 7, both explicitly “reaffirming” Macedonian identity and language. Bulgarian nationalist commentators immediately coined the hashtag #Skopjegate, likening it to last year’s Qatargate cash-for-favours scandal.

Counter-offensive and deletions

Faced with mounting criticism from Sofia and Athens, the three largest EP groups—EPP, S&D and Renew Europe—struck a late-night deal on 3 July to delete every reference to the contested identity clauses before next week’s Strasbourg plenary vote. Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev hailed the agreement as a victory for “historical truth.”

Mickoski lashes out

Back in Skopje, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski blasted the U-turn as “done the Taliban way,” accusing Bulgaria of trying to erase his nation’s existence. Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski called the deletions “shameful” and warned Brussels it risked alienating a pro-European public.

What happens next?

• Plenary showdown – The full Parliament is scheduled to debate and vote on the amended text during the 8–10 July session in Strasbourg. Diplomatic sources say rival amendment packages are still being drafted, raising the prospect of a floor fight over wording.
• Accession timetable at stake – Rapporteur Waitz insists the report must pass to “maintain momentum” before the Council revisits enlargement in the autumn.
• Regional ripple effect – The row adds a new layer of mistrust to already fraught Bulgaria–North Macedonia relations, a fault-line Brussels has tried to bridge since veto threats first surfaced in 2020. EU officials privately fear the dispute could delay the opening of the first negotiating clusters, still conditional on Skopje enshrining Bulgaria’s minority in its constitution.

Why it matters

• Transparency in EU law-making – “Skopjegate” has renewed calls to tighten the European Parliament’s transparency register and to make rapporteurs’ external contacts fully public.
• Identity politics meets enlargement fatigue – The controversy illustrates how unresolved bilateral history can hijack the EU’s enlargement machinery, undermining public trust in both Brussels and candidate capitals.
• Domestic stakes for Mickoski – Having campaigned on defending a “centuries-old” Macedonian identity, the prime minister now faces opposition claims that his diplomatic gambit back-fired, weakening Skopje’s hand just as accession talks were poised to advance.

With the clock ticking toward next week’s plenary vote, diplomats warn the tempest over terminology could yet scuttle an entire year of technical progress—unless lawmakers find wording that squares historical sensitivities with Brussels’ rule-of-law focus. Either way, the political fallout from #Skopjegate now stretches far beyond the fine print of a parliamentary report.