Portugal Hopes to Move Forward with North Macedonia by End of June

During Tuesday’s session of the General Affairs Council of the European Union, North Macedonia and Albania were discussed in the context of the possibility of starting negotiations soon. The current chair of the Union, Portugal, hopes that North Macedonia-EU intergovernmental conference could be held by early July. This was stated by Ana Paula Zacarias, Portugal’s Secretary of State for European Affairs, who informed that with the support of EU Commissioner Varhelyi, talks were held with the Bulgarian authorities that day, correspondents report from Brussels. She said that Bulgaria is in the post-election period, but that the debate on North Macedonia continues in order to reach a result, which is during the Portuguese Presidency the intergovernmental conferences with the two countries to begin, adding that North Macedonia has met all the conditions and that after the full adoption of the negotiating framework, negotiations could begin.