Skopje

Some 35 migrants were injured on Wednesday night when the truck they were traveling in capsized on the road from the village of Udovo to the town of Gevgelija, close to North Macedonia's border with Greece.

According to the Interior Ministry, the injured migrants were kept in the cargo area of the truck that capsized. A total of 49 migrants was discovered at the site of the accident.

The foreign ministers of Bulgaria and North Macedonia signed the bilateral protocol to Art. 12 of the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation.

The document will form part of Skopje's negotiating framework for EU membership and contains measures for the history, hate speech and culture curricula.

With 68 votes "in favor" and none "against" and in the absence of MPs from the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE and the small "Levitsa" formation, the parliament adopted draft conclusions, with which the cabinet is given direction on what it can and cannot negotiates in the European integration process.

North Macedonia must take a step forward towards the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the Macedonian parliament ahead of a meeting where lawmakers are debating the so-called "French proposal" to start EU negotiations.

Von der Leyen concluded her address to the Macedonian MPs with a quote from the late President Boris Trajkovski:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria sent a note today to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia due to "numerous manifestations and slogans directed against Bulgaria".

Judicial Woes

A courtroom in Skopje. Photo: BIRN

Seven years ago, when the ruling SDSM came to power in North Macedonia, one of its pledges for cleaning up corruption and strengthening the rule of law was to implement a judicial vetting process. The aim of this would have been to root out corrupt or inefficient judges.

North Macedonian police said they arrested a person who held a handgun and fired shots in the air at Thursday night's protest against the acceptance of a French proposal aimed at unclogging North Macedonia's stalled EU accession talks.

For the fifth night in a row, a protest organized by the VMRO-DPMNE of Hristijan Mickoski and the pro-Russian Left of Dimitar Apasiev took place in Skopje against the French proposal to start negotiations for membership of North Macedonia in the EU, reported BGNES.

The Bulgarian airline GullivAir has permanently suspended regular flights to Skopje (North Macedonia), Tirana (Albania) and Burgas (Bulgaria).

Pride Parades attract hate speech in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia

Pride parades in Sarajevo and Skopje on June 25 prompted numerous digital rights violations which followed the common pattern of online hate speech against the LGBT+ community.