The European Union is stepping up efforts in order to launch negotiations with Skopje and Tirana.
Portuguese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva will be accompanied by the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi in a visit to Skopje and Sophia.
According to an announcement from the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU & European Commission, the agenda is set to start off with Bulgarian President Rumen Georgiev Radev, and then continue with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, and foreign affairs minister Ekaterina Zakharieva.
Then, Silva and Varhelyi will travel to North Macedonia where they will meet with President Stevo Pendarovski, PM Zoran Zaen, and foreign minister Bujar Osmani.
“The official launch of the accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia is a key priority for the EU and the first Intergovernmental Conferences with both countries should be organized as soon as possible after the adoption of the Negotiating Frameworks by the Council”, wrote the Portuguese EU presidency on its official webpage.
Recently, an idea to decouple North Macedonia and Albania has been circulating, in case Bulgaria refuses to lift the veto.
But, the majority of EU member states, including Germany, dismissed the idea while insisting that both countries have fulfilled the criteria to start negotiations.
Removing obstacles from Bulgaria has not been an easy task as the country is going into snap parliamentary elections making it even more difficult to reach a compromise.
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