Macedonians

Following her visit to Serbia, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva continues today her Balkan tour with talks in Albania.

Recognition of the Bulgarian minority in Albania. This will be one of the main goals of the Foreign Minister.

His Holiness Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyt has welcomed representatives of the Association of Bulgarian Schools Abroad, whose aim is preserving the national identity of Bulgarians abroad, Standard New reported.

It was pointed out that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has always actively supported the association.

''Honestly, in Brussels there is nothing to be heard about the scandal surrounding the National Palace of Culture - the main building where the meetings concerning Bulgaria's European presidency will be held from the beginning of next year.''

This was announced by the new Bulgarian commissioner, Maria Gabriel, in an interview for the show "This morning".

Macedonian citizens like Serbia more than any other neighboring country, an M Prospekt poll commissioned by Skopje-based Telma TV has shown.

According to the survey, 44.3 percent of respondents said Serbia is the country with the friendliest attitude toward Macedonia.

Bulgaria's coalition government is to table in the National Assembly proposed amendments to the Bulgarians Abroad Act and the Bulgarian Citizenship Act to speed up the process of granting citizenship to applicants from non-EU countries, quoted by the Independent Balkan News Agency.  Principal beneficiaries are expected to be those claiming Bulgarian citizenship by descent.

At its regular weekly sitting, the Council of Ministers approved draft agreements on labour migration with Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine.

After the sitting Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, who is in charge of Bulgarians abroad, announced that persons wishing to work in Bulgaria for a period of 90 days will now be able to obtain the documents required within the space of 7 days.

FYROM (Macedonian) Ambassador to Serbia Vera Jovanovska-Tipko will be summoned to the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tanjug is reporting on Tuesday.

The agency said it learned that Jovanovska will be asked today to provide answers about the wiretapping of journalists and representatives of Serbs in Macedonia.

''In the hierarchy of spirit and culture, the leaders are not politicians, but the knights of the letters.'' This is what Bulgarian President Rumen Radev stated during the official ceremony on the occasion of May 24, the Bulgarian Education and Culture, and Slavonic Literature Day, in front of the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library, FOCUS News Agency reported.

One of the most ambitious Bulgarian projects in recent years, Heights is an adaptation of Milen Ruskov's novel of the same name, published in 2011. The EUR 1.35M project explores the Bulgarian realities of the 1870s a few years before the war, that would liberate the country from the Ottoman occupation, writes Cineuropa.

A National Forum of Balkan States' Bulgarians under the slogan Mission-Heritage is being held in Sofia, reported the Bulgarian National Radio.