North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski announced, on Saturday, that North Macedonia and Bulgaria have reached an agreement in a long-running dispute, allowing them to begin European Union membership talks.

After a meeting of the government, Kovacevski told reporters, "Finally, after 17 years, we are starting the process of accession negotiations with the European Union."

Bulgaria, an EU member, had previously blocked any progress for such talks due to a dispute between the countries over linguistic and historical issues.

However, Bulgarian deputies approved lifting the veto last month in exchange for EU guarantees that North Macedonia meets certain demands on the issues at hand.

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