Zoran Zaev

North Macedonia's largest opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, has set up roadblocks in Skopje and about 10 other cities across the country, demanding the government release details of a roadmap being negotiated between Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Bulgaria, Skopje Diem reported.

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said he is ready to beg for a solution in Sofia, but is not prepared to sacrifice the Macedonian identity and language, adding that if the dialogue with Bulgaria is successful, talks may be held as early as 23 June.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 5 received North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in Istanbul.

Erdoğan and Zaev held a closed-door meeting at the Vahdettin Mansion.

Earlier in the day, Erdoğan also received Bulgarian Turkish politician Mustafa Karadayı.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said that North Macedonia is acting to preserve the lakeside town of Ohrid and its surroundings, a UNESCO world heritage site, after a critical report from the UN cultural body on Monday.

Namely, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev made the decision to introduce relief for the citizens of Serbia during the summer season in gratitude for the donated contingents of vaccines against coronavirus infection, Belgrade media report.

"At a meeting with [Prime Minister] Zoran Zaev I emphasised that we value our bilateral partnership with North Macedonia and want to see EU accession talks as quickly as possible. We see a positive way forward and are pleased with the ongoing conversation by both Bulgaria and North Macedonia to move North Macedonia EU accession forward," tweeted US Ambassador Kate Byrnes.

Skopje – Foreign minister of Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic, Anže Logar, Alexander Schallenberg and Jakub Kulhanek, expressed support to North Macedonia’s EU path at a working visit to the country on Saturday. Macedonian FM Bujar Osmani thanked for their support and called for EU accession talks to start as soon as possible.

North Macedonia's prime minister, Zoran Zaev, has warned the EU that it's taken a reputational hit in the Balkans and will lose more ground to rival powers if it doesn't start membership talks with his country and Albania soon.

Greater cooperation the energy sector appears to have topped the agenda of contacts in Athens this week by the prime minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev.

According to reports, a meeting with the management of Hellenic Petroleum (Hel.Pe) focused on resuming operation of a fuel pipeline that connects the Greek petrochemical group's refinery in Thessaloniki with Skopje.

While EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell "practically corrected Varhelyi," said Malinka Ristovska of the European Policy Institute, EPI, a Skopje-based think tank, he offered nothing new on how the bloc proposed to get around Bulgaria's continuing veto threat.