Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, said on Monday that the bloc's members had agreed to open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia. EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania have been pending since 2020. Monday's announcement also came after North Macedonia resolved a long dispute with its EU neighbor Bulgaria, which had been blocking the start of the accession talks with Skopje. EU countries have "just agreed to open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia!" Bulgaria had blocked any progress for EU accession talks with North Macedonia over linguistic and historical issues.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 19, 2022 11:29 UTC