Macedonia submitted its membership application in 2004, thirteen years after its independence from Yugoslavia. It is one of five current EU candidate countries, together with Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. The EU gave its formal approval to begin accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania in March 2020.[1] However, in November 2020 Bulgaria has effectively blocked the official start of North Macedonia’s EU Accession Negotiations over slow progress on the implementation of the 2017 Friendship Treaty between the two countries, state-supported or tolerated hate speech and minority claims towards Bulgaria.[2]