EU ambassadors’ meeting on Friday didn’t result in progress in Bulgaria’s stance to approve the adoption of the negotiating framework for North Macedonia. An outcome would depend on bilateral talks between Skopje and Sofia.

“Nothing has changed in Bulgaria’s position,” EU diplomats stressed after a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, who discussed a draft text of the negotiating framework.

The Bulgarian Ambassador to the EU stuck firmly to the same position on the issues considered unacceptable by his country, which prevents the EU ambassadors from unanimously green lighting the negotiating framework.

The other ambassadors see no reason to revisit the issue in coming meetings unless North Macedonia and Bulgaria make progress at a bilateral level, say Council of the EU sources.

Contacts are intensive, claim EU diplomats alongside attempts to offer mediation by Germany’s EU presidency and Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi to settle the dispute, which would pave the way for the first intergovernmental government between the EU and North Macedonia to take place by the end of the year, and thus mark the opening of negotiations.

All EU members champion this objective.

Some countries that are more inclined on swift enlargement process and more flexibility are reserved in view of the final conclusions, however, it will prove difficult to convince the countries with reservation about enlargement, according to several diplomatic sources.

European affairs ministers, originally scheduled to hold a meeting on Nov. 10, will now meet on Nov. 17 and they are expected to adopt the negotiating framework for North Macedonia. It means that Skopje and Sofia and their mediators have ten days to find a solution and align the positions, which would remove Bulgaria’s reservations.