Regions

Dona-Maria Nammour was looking for a love story. The night she met Mazen Jaber for the first time, they ended up dancing for hours.

The Foreign Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, expressed the position that the vote in the Bulgarian Parliament today will block the long-term European enlargement process and paralyze the Good Neighbour Agreement between the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Just two days after the ousting of PM Kiril Petkov in a no-confidence vote, Bulgarian legislators on Friday adopted a declaration which would allow their government to potentially lift its veto on starting EU membership talks for neighbouring North Macedonia.

The Assembly of Bulgaria discussed today the decision accepting the proposal of the French Presidency of the EU regarding the negotiating framework for North Macedonia and Albania.

Brussels – Prime Minister Robert Golob expressed the hope that EU leaders will reach a consensus on giving Bosnia-Herzegovina candidate country status at Thursday’s summit as he dismissed reports by some media that Slovenia is willing to block Ukraine’s bid to achieve that.

Three Western Balkans leaders expressed displease over the poor outcome of the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.

"The proposal of the French Presidency is unacceptable in this version for the Republic of North Macedonia".

This was stated by Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski at a press conference after the Western Balkans-European Union summit in Brussels.

"Exactly 19 years ago, at the Thessaloniki Summit, the way was opened for the Western Balkans to join the European family. Unfortunately, since then, the progress that has been made, in practice, is minimal.

The French presidency's proposal to resolve the dispute shook the Macedonian government after three small parties threatened to leave if the cabinet approved a draft sent to the Bulgarian parliament to end the dispute between Skopje and Sofia.

Slavi Trifonov's actions are against the background of a tangible public reluctance for new sharp political movements - the public background is not in favor of new elections and even government changes. The new French proposal for North Macedonia came amid a continuing firm belief that Skopje has not done enough to remove Bulgaria's "block".