Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski said that he can not reveal whether any progress was made during his meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov in Rome today. Kovacevski added that talks are on-going between experts and the public will be informed once there is a mutually acceptable proposal.

We did not discuss about any new conditions from Bulgaria. There are the open issues and the so-called Portuguese proposal to resolve them, which is the basis of our talks at the level of our Foreign Ministries, Kovacevski said.

Both Kovacevski and Petkov said that they would not want to get tied down to specific dates – even as the June meeting of the European Council is approaching. This is widely seen as a pessimistic sign that Bulgaria will not lift its veto at the Council.