North Macedonia's bid to join the European Union remains at a standstill, with the country still unable to open its first negotiating cluster more than four years after accession talks formally began. The European Commission said on 4 November that Skopje had made no attempt in the past year to adopt the constitutional change needed to move forward.

The blockage centres on Bulgaria's demand that Bulgarians be named among the communities listed in North Macedonia's constitution, alongside Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Roma and others. The condition comes from the negotiating framework agreed in July 2022, when the country formally opened accession talks after Bulgaria lifted a veto it had imposed in 2020.

Changing the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, which the government of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, in office since June 2024, does not command. President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova told the Euronews Enlargement Summit in Brussels on 3 November that 80 percent of North Macedonians oppose further constitutional amendments, while 70 percent support EU membership.

The Commission did credit Skopje with preparatory work, including a roadmap on public administration reform adopted in November 2025 and continued work on a rule of law roadmap and an action plan on minorities. But without the amendments, it cannot open the "Fundamentals" cluster, the first and most important group of negotiating chapters.

The standstill contrasts sharply with Albania, which began the process alongside North Macedonia in 2020 but was decoupled from it in September 2024. Albania has since opened all 33 negotiating chapters and provisionally closed the first three in July 2026. Prime Minister Mickoski said on 6 November that his government's position on the amendments was unchanged, while Bulgaria's foreign minister rejected Skopje's calls for a mediator in the dispute.