Vice-Premier for European Affairs Teuta Arifi held talks Wednesday in Sofia with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov, Minister in charge of European funds management Tomislav Donchev and chair of the Parliament's Foreign Policy and Defense Committee Dobroslav Dimitrov.

The talks were focused on the bilateral relations and Macedonia's EU-integration process, the Secretariat for European Affairs said in a press release.

Arifi briefed her hosts on the pace of Macedonia's reforms, in particular the realization of the European Commission recommendations in the spheres of judiciary, freedom of expression and where ever necessary. She also referred to the launch of a high-level Macedonia-EU dialogue and the technical one related to the Chapters 23 and 24.

The talks addressed the regional cooperation, EU funds  management, especially the ones of the IPA Cross-Border Co-operation Programme.

Macedonia's accession to the EU was also a subject of discussion at Arifi's meeting with Bulgarian MPs. They agreed that the EU accession of all Western Balkan countries would contribute to the region's political, economic and social stability, the press release reads.