Prespa agreement

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said on Saturday that "swift snap elections" should be held "as soon as possible" after France refused to give up its opposition to giving North Macedonia a start date for EU membership talks.

Despite the support of 25 member-states, the European Council has rejected the launch of accession talks with North Macedonia, essentially leaving its Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in a political lurch, given that he had plugged the contentious Prespes agreement with Greece to his people as the ticket that will open the gates to Europe.

Namely, according to the Pristina based Gazeta Blic daily, the European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations believes that this would most affect the relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

North Macedonia's Premier Zoran Zaev and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras called on the European Union to set a date for the start of EU accession talks in October, during a meeting in Skopje on Monday afternoon.

,,A quick solution to the open issues with Bulgaria is possible'', the Prime Minister of Northern Macedonia Zoran Zaev said today, quoted by MIA.
He said the two countries had signed a treaty in which they accepted the fact of their common history. Zaev added that part of this story is individual for both parties, and he hopes the commission will find a solution.

It is possible to find a solution to the controversial issues with Bulgaria very quickly. Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said this, BGNESS reported.

"We have signed a treaty with which we accepted we have a common history. Of course, part of it is different for the two countries. In that spirit, I believe the committees will find a solution," Zaev said.

In a major boost to the EU membership hopes of both Balkan countries, the German Bundestag on Thursday night voted to support the start of EU accession talks for North Macedonia and Albania.

The vote means the German government should be "in favour" of a start date for the two countries at the European Council meeting on October 17-18.

A forum dedicated to the Balkans has been held during the UN General Assembly in New York, BNR reported.

In connection with unresolved historical disputes, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva told Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev that politicians were bolder than historians.

At his first meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev in New York, the new Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said he would never have signed the historic 2018 deal with Macedonia - but would honour it nevertheless.

In his first meeting with North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev since being elected, Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would not have signed the Prespes accord if he had been in power in 2018 when the deal was inked, according to government sources cited by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency Tuesday.