What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

70. Recognises North Macedonia’s great potential as a regional hub with regard to the use of renewable energy sources; urges North Macedonia to fully align its environmental impact assessment with the EU acquis, with a particular focus on secondary legislation concerning small hydropower projects;

71. Stresses the urgent need to prioritise environmental protection; strongly urges the authorities to adopt the necessary legislation and to step up measures on biodiversity, water, air and climate action, and regional waste management, including through comprehensive impact assessments, rigorous prosecution of environmental crime and proper public consultation that allows for the meaningful and transparent involvement of local communities, NGOs and scientific institutions;

72. Calls on North Macedonia to establish legal protections for Emerald Sites designated under the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (the Bern Convention) to safeguard them from environmentally harmful projects; encourages the country to expand its protected areas, with a view to fulfilling the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets; reiterates the urgent need to adopt the law on the re-proclamation of Mavrovo National Park to ensure the continuation and completion of its essential conservation efforts; encourages North Macedonia to include Jablanica on its list of protected areas, thus ensuring the conservation of habitats that are critical to the survival of species;

73. Encourages the authorities of North Macedonia to implement stricter protection and management strategies for the habitats of endangered species, as well as for the species themselves, particularly the Balkan lynx, including rigorous enforcement of laws against wildlife crimes, specifically illegal killing and poaching, to safeguard biodiversity;

74. Welcomes North Macedonia’s continued cooperation with Kosovo and Albania regarding the transboundary Sharr Mountains National Park; encourages North Macedonia to intensify and speed up collaborative efforts with its neighbouring countries to designate transboundary protected areas and establish coherent transboundary management plans;

75. Stresses the need to tackle financial challenges faced by national parks to improve various aspects, including human resources and overall management, with the aim of strengthening their role in biodiversity conservation, providing recreational opportunities and supporting local economies;

77. Calls for additional efforts to accelerate progress on all priority sections of the core network for both rail and road, including by increasing the number of border crossings wherever possible; notes the strategic importance of Corridor VIII for the EU’s and NATO’s geostrategic autonomy, serving as a key logistics route along NATO’s southern flank;

Regional cooperation and foreign policy

78. Welcomes North Macedonia’s valuable and significant contributions to regional cooperation and stability via its engagement in regional economic and diplomatic initiatives such as the Berlin Process, the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, and the implementation of common regional market agreements, underlining the importance of their inclusiveness;

79. Welcomes the country’s commitment to nurturing good neighbourly relations and acknowledges its role as a model for the peaceful resolution of bilateral disputes through dialogue and mutual understanding; emphasises, in this regard, the importance of full implementation of international agreements with tangible results in good faith by all sides, including the Prespa Agreement with Greece and the Treaty of friendship, good neighbourliness and cooperation with Bulgaria; calls for consistent commitment to dialogue and cooperation with neighbouring countries to strengthen regional stability and foster mutual trust; calls for the further promotion of people-to-people contacts across south-eastern Europe;

80. Expresses concern about the so-called ‘Serbian world’ project and that some representatives of the Government of North Macedonia have been advocating and promoting this concept; condemns the participation in meetings that attempt to establish a sphere of influence undermining the sovereignty of other countries and the stability of the region;

81. Recalls the need to open up Yugoslav secret service archives (UDBA and KOS), kept in both North Macedonia and Serbia; emphasises the need to open these archives region-wide to deal with the totalitarian past in a transparent way, with a view to strengthening democracy, accountability and institutions in the Western Balkans;

82. Welcomes North Macedonia’s continued commitment to Euro-Atlantic security; commends North Macedonia’s active role in the OSCE, in particular its chairmanship of the OSCE in 2023 in a complex geopolitical environment, and substantial contributions to EU crisis management missions and military operations; commends the country’s alignment with the EU’s foreign, security and defence policy, including its clear-cut response to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine by aligning with the EU’s restrictive measures against Russia and Belarus and providing support to Ukraine; welcomes the signing of a security and defence partnership with the EU in 2024;

83. Regrets, however, that North Macedonia, was the only country in the Western Balkans to abstain on the European resolution on Ukraine in the UN General Assembly in February 2025 and instead co-sponsored the US resolution, alongside countries such as Georgia and Hungary, representing a negative signal regarding North Macedonia’s alignment with the EU’s common foreign and security policy and with the collective European commitment to upholding peace, international law and democratic principles;

84. Acknowledges North Macedonia’s NATO membership as a significant geostrategic contribution to regional security and Euro-Atlantic stability, including through the country’s active participation in NATO missions and operations and its strategic role in fostering peace and cooperation in the Western Balkans, as well as through the ongoing modernisation of its armed forces and reforms in the fields of crisis management, critical infrastructure and cyber defence; highlights the fact that NATO membership strengthens North Macedonia’s defence capabilities, enhances security coordination with EU and NATO allies, and serves as a deterrent against external destabilisation efforts; encourages North Macedonia to deepen cooperation with the EU and NATO on countering hybrid threats, including through cybersecurity coordination, joint disinformation tracking and resilience-building, and to pursue its efforts to deter external destabilisation attempts; encourages North Macedonia to continue its investment in defence modernisation and alignment with NATO strategic priorities in order to further solidify its role as a reliable security partner;

85. Welcomes the agreement concluded at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana on reduced roaming costs; calls, in this respect, on the authorities, private actors and all stakeholders to facilitate achieving the agreed targets of a substantial reduction of data roaming charges between the Western Balkans and the EU and further reductions leading to prices close to the domestic prices by 2027; welcomes the entering into force of the first phase of implementation of the roadmap for roaming between the Western Balkans and the EU;