Brussels, 19 October 2021 (MIA) - European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi said on Tuesday that he’s working on North Macedonia and Albania to hold the first intergovernmental conferences at the same time, by December at the latest, MIA reports from Brussels. “The two countries have met the conditions together and we want an agreement for both of them together. This is the majority view of member states and therefore at this stage we can and should only consider them both,” Várhelyi stressed after being asked by Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev whether he’s in favor of starting accession negotiations only with Albania at this stage. A few months ago, Várhelyi said that Albania could get a green light to hold the first intergovernmental conference alone, but the proposal was swiftly rejected by EU member states. The EU Commissioner added that the aim is for Skopje and Tirana to get a green light for starting membership talks by December at the latest, but reiterated that it’s up to EU member states to make that decision. “I’m not the one providing the votes for this, I’m the one trying to convince people to vote for it. This is as much as I can share with you on this, but certainly I will continue to engage and continue to work with Andrey Kovatchev, who is also another secret aide of mine in trying to move things. We’ll see, I don’t want to give you any insights, but I can tell you we’re working against this deadline,” Várhelyi said. A few minutes before, Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev asked colleagues not to refer to the issue between North Macedonia and Bulgaria as a bilateral issue. “This is a basic human rights issue. Bulgarians in North Macedonia are afraid to openly declare themselves, this is not a crazy nationalistic issue, but a basic human rights issue, as evidenced from references in European Parliament resolutions from the last ten years,” Kovatchev said. Várhelyi didn’t comment on this statement.