Bulgarian government officials and members of the European Parliament accused Waitz of concealing lobbying meetings with North Macedonian officials, claiming he favored North Macedonia’s demands while leaking them confidential information and ignoring Bulgarian input.
Waitz’s office denies any particular collaboration with the North Macedonian government, though it admitted he was late to declare meetings per the Parliament’s voluntary 30-day rule. He was poised to declare them before the end of the negotiations, the office said.
Waitz told POLITICO it is standard to meet with officials from the country the report is about, not its neighbor.
Bulgarian politicians are doing everything they can to knock down the report, Waitz said, “including smear campaigns, fake accusations of being corrupt, fake accusations of being biased.”
He showed POLITICO several threatening messages he received after his phone number was leaked on Bulgarian extreme-right social media accounts.
The smear campaigns, he said, are trying “to slow down North Macedonia’s EU accession process.”
