North Macedonia

On Monday in Brussels, President Rumen Radev met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, said President Radev's Press Office.

"The way to solve the problems and open a European road to North Macedonia passes primarily through Sofia" - this was stated to journalists by Bulgarian president Rumen Radev.

The foreign ministers of Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia voiced unanimous support on Saturday for North Macedonia and Albania to start EU membership talks, arguing that bilateral issues should not block the EU's enlargement into the Western Balkans.

North Macedonia's President Stevo Pendarovski and his Bulgarian counterpart, Rumen Radev, are traveling this week to Rome to pay joint tribute to Sts Cyril and Methodius, the ninth-century missionaries and founders of the first Slavic alphabet, who were sanctified there in the 19th century.

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 has fulfilled all the democratic conditions to open EU accession talks, but it is constantly being "kicked" around, said President Zoran Milanovic on Thursday after Sofia criticised his statements about Bulgaria's policy on that EU membership aspirant.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has summoned Croatian ambassador to Sofia, Jasna Ognjanovac, for talks after harsh criticism directed at Sofia's foreign policy by Croatian President Zoran Milanović. 

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.

According to Macedonian media, Zaev warned the EU that its reputation would "get a serious blow in the Balkans and lose its place in front of rival forces if it does not start membership negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania soon".

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.