North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski declared that citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia will discard their Bulgarian passports as soon as the country joins the European Union. In response to questions about whether he would ask Macedonian citizens holding Bulgarian passports to relinquish them, Mickoski emphasized that their acquisition was motivated by economic benefits rather than ethnic or national identity.
Mickoski explained that Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, Serbian, Vlach, and Bosniak individuals holding Bulgarian passports did so not out of a sense of Bulgarian identity but to gain easier access to work opportunities in the EU....
