EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi and Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva, on behalf of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, have arrived in Skopje.

Várhelyi and Silva are paying Friday a day-long visit to Skopje and Sofia for talks with top officials of Bulgaria and North Macedonia on the EU’s enlargement process and to discuss ways for unblocking the process that would pave the way for the first intergovernmental conference with North Macedonia to take place.

“FM Silva and Commissioner Várhelyi just landed in Skopje, bringing new incentive of Portugal’s EU Presidency for the challenging North Macedonia-EU juncture. We all need to be up to the task to preserve the perspectives of our mutual European future,” Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani tweeted.

Earlier today, Várhelyi and Silva in Sofia met with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev, who said that Bulgaria is open to active, open and full dialogue with the Republic of North Macedonia.

Stoev said he expects neighbours in the region to work in the spirit of sincerity and constructiveness, pointing out that there’s complete continuity in Bulgaria’s position regarding North Macedonia, and that the maintaining of goodneighbourly relations and the implementation of the 2017 Friendship Treaty remain of key significance for Bulgaria.

PM Zoran Zaev said earlier in the week that the visit was planned ahead of the EU General Affairs Council on June 22, when a decision is to be taken on the adoption of the negotiating framework and the first intergovernmental conference (IGC) with North Macedonia, thus formally launching the accession negotiations.

If EU member-states reach an agreement by June 22 and provided North Macedonia approves the negotiating framework, the IGC could take place between June 22-30.