EU urges N Macedonia to back proposed deal with Bulgaria

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES
Associated Press

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — European Council President Charles Michel has urged North Macedonia to back a French-proposed compromise on ending a dispute with neighboring Bulgaria that’s blocking the country’s long-delayed European Union accession bid. Violent protests erupted in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, where demonstrators tried to storm government buildings, after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the proposal — which many in the small Balkan country find controversial — last week. Macron said at a NATO summit in Madrid that “a compromise solution” to lift Bulgaria’s opposition to its neighbor’s EU aspirations had been achieved, without giving details. A few hundred people held a new peaceful protest in Skopje late Tuesday.