On his Balkan tour German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledges in Skopje to "work hard to pave the way for concrete talks, for concrete opening of negotiations" on North Macedonia and Albania's application to enter the European Union. He adds that "a lot of efforts were made by North Macedonia and Albania." On his side North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski refers to Bulgaria as the "only one EU member state holding as hostage" the two countries from entering the EU. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES