Varhelyi, Silva to Visit Skopje on Friday

The European Commission (EC) confirmed on Thursday that Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi and Portuguese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva will pay visit to Sofia and Skopje on Friday. Namely, Varhelyi and Silva will allegedly present a proposal for resolution of the bilateral dispute between official Sofia and Skopje, which has been the reason for delaying of the start of the EU accession talks with the latter. This visit was also announced by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev while he was in Brussels on Wednesday. Varhelyi and Silva will arrive in Sofia first, and then will travel to Skopje on Friday afternoon. In meantime, Bulgarian media reports of an interview with VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski in which he calls for Macedonia to one-sidedly abandon the Good-Neighbourliness Agreement with Bulgaria.