North Macedonian government

Bulgaria has provided assurances to the US special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, that it will not introduce fresh conditions for the accession of the Republic of North Macedonia into the European Union (EU).

Sofia - Skopje relations have entered a new crisis following the publication last week of a report by the International Institute for the Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES), a Slovenian think tank.

It was midday on March 29, 2001 when the Associated Press news agency team in Kosovo's capital Pristina received information that gunshots had been heard near the border with North Macedonia.

Zoran Zaev told a Russia-North Macedonia economic forum in Skopje on Thursday that the event and the reactivation of an inter-governmental commission on trade with Russia do not mean that his country is seeking an alternative to Euro-Atlantic integration.

Hidden Advantage?

There were chaotic scenes at Skopje's Appeals Court on Thursday, with the defendants shouting that they do not recognise the court, at the start of a hearing to decide on whether to hold a retrial of 33 ethnic Albanians who were convicted of involvement in a deadly two-day shootout in the town of Kumanovo in May 2015.