FYROM Reacts to EU Report

[Truth Bearer]

Skopje_ Macedonia’s government and opposition have differed strongly in their reactions to the European Commission’s annual progress report on their country which was published Tuesday.



Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski described the report as “well-balanced”, and blamed the opposition for the negative references in it.


"What depended only on the government - the economy and the fight against corruption - has been relatively positively assessed in the report", Gruevski told media on Tuesday.


“But there are things that do not depend completely on us, but also on the opposition and other factors in the state, and in this part there are mainly some weaknesses”, he added.


For the opposition, the fact that the report does not recommend a starting date for EU accession talks, renders the Commission’s report negative.


Macedonia has been awaiting the opening of accession negotiations since it became a formal candidate for EU membership in December 2005.


Jani Makraduli, vice-president of the main opposition Social Democrats, blamed the government’s arrogance for Skopje’s failure to secure a starting date.


“Gruevski's government is responsible for the poor report because they [the government] did not either listen or talk to us”, he said.


Rafiz Aliti, a deputy from the largest Albanian opposition party, the Democratic Union for Integration, shared his opinion.


“The government is to blame because they had all the necessary mechanisms in their hands”, Aliti said.


The only issue on which the opposition agreed with the government is that the report reflects the objective state of affairs in the country over the past 12 months.

“A strong political will is needed now from all parties in order to speed up political reforms”, the EU ambassador in Macedonia, Erwan Fouere, told media on Tuesday.

He noted that the trading of accusations and quarrels had in the past brought Macedonia’s political progress almost to a halt.

“We cannot deny that time has been lost”, Fouere said with reference to the continuing delay in the setting of a starting date for accession talks.

The Commission’s latest report is regarded as broadly positive about Macedonia’s economic progress and about the fight against corruption, but it criticises the slow pace of reforms as result of a lack of political dialogue.

Copyright BIRN 2007

[Truth Bearer]

Utrinski Vestnik: Macedonia candidature for NATO membership may remain empty wish on paper

6 November 2007 | 11:07 | FOCUS News Agency

Skopje. These days Macedonia is in a tense situation with Greece and NATO and the events around the name of the country are the major ones, Macedonian paper Utrinski Vestnik writes today. In April next year there will be a summit of NATO in Bucharest and the Macedonian candidature for membership in the Alliance may remain only an empty wish on paper if no solution of the dispute with Greece is found.
The international special mediator Matthew Nimitz doesn’t give final terms for the agreement between Macedonia and Greece but he says that he expects progress before the summit of NATO in April when the Alliance will discuss the possible accession of Macedonia. The fact that the things are urgent is proven by yesterday’s emergent meeting of the Macedonia Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki in Brussels with the ambassadors of NATO member-states and especially with the German Ambassador in NATO Ulrich Brandenburg with the hope that Macedonia will win the sympathies of the Western diplomats in the dispute with Greece.

FOCUS Information Agency

[akritas]

7 November 2007

EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn yesterday told a joke at the expense of Macedonia instead of answering the question when the country can hope to begin negotiations with EU, Macedonian newspaper Utrinski vesnik writes today. Rehn didnʼt use such an approach when talking about Albania or Bosnia and Herzegovina, countries about which all agree that they had similar problems and presented themselves worse than Macedonia. Rehn used Macedonia at the beginning of the press conference as an example, declaring that he hoped that one day a European Commissioner from Macedonia would talk to the European Commission in Albanian language.........

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n126476

[nsminc]

Man that was harsh!

[masolord]

that guy is asking for it.

[terastios]

No...you were asking for it and a lot more!