Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said that his country will allow Albania to open its EU accession talks but remains a “no” on Macedonia. Radev said that Macedonia still has not implemented the demands from the Bulgarian package named 4+1 and blamed the Zaev and Kovacevski governments of wasting time while they tried to find alternative ways to pressure Bulgaria to lift the veto.

This means we will need more time, Macedonia will need more time, to implement the package, Radev said.

The announcements from Bulgaria of another veto have pushed Albania to demand that it is taken out of the de-facto enlargement group with Macedonia. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama explicitly made this request.

During a round table in Skopje, professor Marko Kmezic from the University in Graz said that there are now announcements from Germany that they would agree to this option – that Albania advances alone while Macedonia remains stuck until it meets all Bulgarian demands.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is openly more lenient toward Macedonia, but he faces pressure from Radev and from two of his four coalition partners – the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the ITN party – who remain hardline on the issue.