North Macedonia will request an official bilateral meeting with Bulgaria next week as a first step towards unblocking its European Union accession process, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said on October 2 after meeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Skopje, broadcaster MRT reported.

Mickoski said the initiative followed advice from von der Leyen, who encouraged the two sides to start a new phase of dialogue.

Foreign Minister Timco Mucunski is due to travel to Sofia next week for activities related to Corridor VIII and has been instructed to send a diplomatic note requesting a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart.

“I received advice from the President (von der Leyen) that our Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade should be in Sofia next week. Let us ask the host for a bilateral meeting,” Mickoski said.

Von der Leyen confirmed that the EU and North Macedonia had agreed to take a first step towards restarting the process.

“We agreed to take a new step and try to unblock the process next week. When we unblock the situation, we can be very fast with North Macedonia,” she said, adding that the country's progress on reforms had been impressive.

The European Commission president also offered a clear message on North Macedonia's identity and language, an issue at the centre of the country's long-running dispute with Bulgaria.

“We will welcome North Macedonia with its identity and its language. We believe that the Macedonian culture and the Macedonian language can make our Union richer,” von der Leyen said, according to the Commission's statement.

She described North Macedonia as a country that “belongs at the European table” and reiterated the EU's commitment to its membership. At the same time, she said the country still needed to take a key step to move forward and open the fundamentals cluster of the accession negotiations.

Accession negotiations formally began in 2022, followed by the completion of the EU screening process in less than a year. However, the process has not advanced to the opening of negotiating clusters because North Macedonia has yet to adopt constitutional amendments that would recognise Bulgarians among the communities listed in its Constitution.

Mickoski, however, called for stronger EU involvement in resolving the bilateral issues with Sofia. He said North Macedonia was not asking Brussels to take sides but to help establish conditions for a sustainable European solution in which commitments are clear and apply to both sides.

“Our desire is to overcome these issues through dialogue, in good faith and with mutual respect,” Mickoski said. He added that any agreement should provide certainty that once its obligations are fulfilled, one stage of the accession process is completed and the next can begin without new interpretations or additional bilateral demands.

“The goal is not to delay the process, but to create conditions for it to finally move forward on a stable and sustainable basis,” Mickoski said.

Von der Leyen's comments suggested that Brussels sees renewed direct dialogue between Skopje and Sofia as the immediate practical step, although she did not commit to the EU formally joining bilateral negotiations. She said the two sides should build trust through frequent meetings and confirmed that the first step would be taken the following week.

Beyond the dispute with Bulgaria, von der Leyen highlighted North Macedonia's progress under the EU's Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. She said the country had made the plan a “real success” and had already received €140mn, with further payments expected.

She also pointed to North Macedonia's accession to the Single Euro Payments Area, which she said had reduced transaction fees by more than 90%, as well as progress on reducing roaming charges between North Macedonia and the EU.

The Commission president further highlighted North Macedonia's participation in European artificial intelligence infrastructure through the VEZILKA AI Factory Antenna, which is intended to give companies, start-ups and researchers access to European computing capacity.

Von der Leyen said the European Commission would also present its pre-enlargement policy reviews the following week, examining changes that may be needed in the EU's institutions, policies and budget to accommodate future members.

“We want to make sure that our European Union is ready to become larger,” she said.

Mickoski said North Macedonia remained committed to EU membership and to implementing reforms in areas including the rule of law, public administration, the business environment, digitalisation and education.

The next meeting between the North Macedonian and Bulgarian foreign ministers could therefore provide an initial test of whether the renewed political engagement can produce movement in a process that has been stalled for years by bilateral disputes.

For Skopje, the government is seeking not only progress towards the constitutional changes required under the EU framework, but also clearer guarantees that fulfilling agreed commitments will allow the accession process to advance without additional bilateral conditions.