With the certain failure of the push to get Macedonia to open its EU accession talks in December, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani told Telma TV that he sees a chance in January.

The European Council holds a summit on Tuesday, and it is clear that Bulgaria will keep its veto against Macedonia, and block us from opening our long awaited EU accession talks, which by default means that Albania will be blocked as well.

I hope that the seriousness of the consequences of this delay, this failure to effect the decisions made by the EU itself, and how it may influence the trust in the Union in our region will lead to a situation where both countries will open their accession talks in January at the latest, Osmani said.

Bulgaria is finally on the verge of forming a Government that will include parties with a more moderate stand on Macedonia, but even so, the likely future Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who is considered to be one of these moderates, said that it would take at least six months of talks before some results are achieved between the two countries.