EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi fell short of confirming if he had submitted a proposal on settling the Skopje-Sofia dispute.
Speaking Tuesday at a news conference on the strategic partnership between the European Union and its Southern Neighbourhood partners, Várhelyi briefly commented that the European Commission hoped that the opening of negotiations for North Macedonia would be unblocked as soon as possible, MIA’s Brussels correspondent reports.
Last year, Bulgaria put a veto to the start of accession negotiations due to a bilateral dispute.
Several diplomats last year briefed that Commissioner Várhelyi had submitted a proposal for settling of the dispute, which benefited Bulgaria. As a result, it was rejected by the authorities in Skopje, the German EU presidency, which ended in December 2020, and many EU member states.
