At a conference in Sofia on the results of the completed Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, President Rumen Radev said that compliments for the presidency should not to deceive us and people should not focus on the "fanfares over the Western Balkans."

According to the head of state, the Western Balkans have continued to be a priority for Sofia, but have remained outside the focus of united Europe. Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva expressed her disagreement with this assessment, recalling that at the beginning of the work of this EC commission the enlargement of the Union was not a priority, but after the Bulgarian presidency it is already a major one. She added that Bulgaria has managed to make its national priority for integration of the Balkans a pan-European priority.