EU expansion drive in Balkans adds to Bulgarian PM’s woes

By VESELIN TOSHKOV
Associated Press

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — After just seven months in office, and now reduced to heading a minority government, Bulgaria’s liberal Prime Minister Kiril Petkov finds himself between a rock and a hard place over European Union enlargement amid the war in Ukraine. Russia’s invasion spurred the EU to speed up its expansion drive in the Western Balkans. But EU and NATO member Bulgaria is blocking part of the process in the case of neighboring North Macedonia — one of the six EU hopefuls in the region. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Friday urged Petkov’s cabinet to disperse any suspicion that the country might take the deeply unpopular step of abandoning its veto on North Macedonia’s EU accession.