Bulgaria welcomes the start of EU membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia, as decided by the General Affairs Council, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva has said. I hope that on March 26, the European Council will support the decision, the minister added.

The conclusions, which will be formally adopted on Thursday, contain a text linking progress in the negotiations with Skopje achieving stable results from the implementation of the Treaty on friendship, good neighbor relations and cooperation with Bulgaria. With regard to Albania, we will be monitoring the protection of rights of the Bulgarian national minority there. Our friends are at the beginning of a long journey. I sincerely wish them good luck, Minister Zaharieva added.