Leaders of the four relevant political parties of Macedonia met on Thursday but did not agree on constitutional changes. SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski requested of PM Gruevski to receive a written guarantee so that a consensus can be reached and further tensions to be avoided. PM Nikola Gruevski will provide a written explanation of the proposed constitutional changes related to the Judicial Council. The meeting ended without a precise agreement for a new leaders’ meeting at which the constitutional changes will be discussed.  

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Wednesday that there was a working version of an agreement on good neighborly relations and friendship proposed by the Bulgarian government.

“In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there is a draft for such an agreement provided by Bulgaria and it is under close consideration. When the internal analysis is over, we are going to inform the Bulgarian authorities on our stands,” Petar Culev, spokesman for the Ministry, said.

At the leaders’ meeting Thursday, BDI leader Ali Ahmeti will most probably put forward other proposals besides the constitutional changes. Demokracia E Re wants extension of the agenda for debate, too. All leaders, except Menduh Thaci, are going to attend the meeting.

A bus with some fifty people from Macedonia is leaving from Brussels for Skopje Wednesday. The first Balkan asylum seekers to whom the Belgian authorities offered to take back home at Belgium’s expense were those that requested seats on the bus.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki in Zagreb Tuesday met with his Croatian counterpart Gordan Jandrokovic. After the meeting, Milososki and Jandrokovic stressed that the bilateral disputes should not obstruct the European integration process and that they should be left outside of the EU membership talks.

 

Late Monday Belgian PM Yves Leterme arrived in Skopje and met with Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski. After the meeting, Leterme stated that the wave of asylum seekers from Macedonia is just a small incident in the excellent bilateral relations which with joint effort will be surpassed in the following weeks. Leterme reiterated that there is no way of getting political asylum from economic reasons. Gruevski guaranteed that the Government will take on all measures necessary to prevent this problem. On Tuesday, Belgian representatives will visit the region of Lipkovo.

- Macedonia is going to reduce its current account deficit to 7 percent of GDP in 2010, while the national economy is going to achieve a zero percent growth, says the US provider of credit information on businesses and corporations Dun & Bradstreet. Macedonia’s state rating will be BD4b, which means moderate risk. According to Dun & Bradstreet the soaring industrial production in the last few months of 2009 showed signs that the Macedonian economy was getting out of recession.

Belgian PM Yves Leterme pays Monday a one day-working visit to the Republic of Macedonia. Leterme will be accompanied by Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration Melchior Wathelet. Leterme will meet with Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski and they will discuss the recent wave Macedonian immigrants seeking asylum in Belgium. 

PM Nikola Gruevski stated Sunday that the idea for change of the Constitution is not an idea of the international community but part of VMRO-DPMNE’s program. PM Nikola Gruevski announced Friday that he will call on a leaders’ meeting this week regarding the changes to the Constitution and the reforms in the judiciary system. Former judge in the Court of Strasbourg Margarita Caca Nikolovska assessed that the changes of the Constitution in connection to the judiciary system are positive but warn that it is not a guarantee that the political pressure on judges will stop. SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski stated Saturday that the international community pressures to reform the judiciary system. SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski announced that if a leaders’ meeting is organized regarding the changes to the Constitution, he will definitely attend.

- Chief of Macedonian diplomacy Antonio Milosski met Saturday with Hungarian counterpart Péter Balázs in Cordoba Spain. Milososki and Balázs focused on Macedonia's Euro-integration processes.

- Macedonian linguists are divided as regards the proposal that the Macedonian language should be referred to as “Makedonski” in English translations. Some consider this the best option, as others regard it as unacceptable solution. Senior diplomatic sources from Macedonia say the Greek proposal is an old hypocrisy. According to President Gjorge Ivanov, Macedonia’s red line is the UN Resolutions.

If the Constitution is changed to reform the State Judicial Council, it will entail a set of other demands from the political parties for additional changes to the Constitution that will be endless. In such a case, it is better to draft a completely new Constitution than re-tailor the old one, constitutional law professors comment after ruling VMRO-DPMNE announced launching of an initiative for changing the Constitution a few days ago.

- Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and ELEM CEO Vlatko Cingovski put into use Wednesday the new dispatch center of 2.2 million euros that is going to follow weather changes and the level of the accumulations, and measure the demand in electricity. Based on this, plans will be developed for production of electricity.

 

Macedonia will be given 31.5 million euros from the IPA component 5 of the IPARD funds intended for rural development. The deal for the funds was signed by Deputy Prime Minister Vasko Naumovski and EU Ambassador Erwan Fouere Tuesday.

The European Commission said Tuesday that the abuse of the lifting of the visa regime via the asylum applications should be stopped. Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro have been asked to inform their people more on the manipulation by travel agencies.

The Macedonian Government is going to form a committee to follow the seeking of asylum by Macedonian citizens in other countries.

New floods, but this time round civic, are announced by opposition SDSM with the start of the spring. Although admitting the atmosphere is very difficult for organizing protests, SDSM vice chairman Gordan Georgiev says the government is going to face massive protests this spring, Vreme reports.

- Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Stavreski said the National Bank of Greece, owner of Stopanska banka, would remain in the Macedonian market and would continue assisting projects contributing to Macedonia’s economic growth.

Thousands of people from western Macedonia, after the lifting of the visa regime, left for the countries of Western Europe to visit relatives working there and a considerable number of them sought political asylum in Belgium, a number of media report. Some speculate that this is the reason why Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and the Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration Melchior Wathelet are coming to Skopje on 8 March.

- Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said Sunday that Macedonia wished to resolve the name issue but refused to create a new problem and a new situation from which it would not be able to pull out for decades. Therefore we will not take hasty steps, he said. In his view, what happened in Athens and the signals coming from there would be crucial.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is waiting for the outcome from mediator Matthew Nimetz’s meeting with the Greek state leadership before calling a leaders’ meeting with representatives of the major political parties at which the name issue talks would be discussed. According to government sources, it is possible for Gruevski to call such a meeting as early as this weekend, because of the pressure coming primarily from the ethnic Albanian party in office and the entire opposition.

Suggestions for resolution of the name issue, most of which were already known, were offered to the Macedonian authorities by mediator Matthew Nimetz.

President Gjorge Ivanov is said to have asked mediator Nimetz to narrow down the scope of the negotiating process within the framework of Resolution 817 of the UN Security Council. This means that the differences regarding the name, and not the language and identity, should be discussed.

Nimetz said the main issue being talked about was the country’s name, as identity issues were subordinate.

 

Wednesday afternoon, UN Mediator in the Macedonia-Greece name talks Matthew Nimetz met with PM Nikola Gruevski and presented the new ideas he brought to Skopje, which he will discuss with Greek state leadership on Friday.
“I believe that this is an excellent time to try to solve the name issue,” stated Nimetz upon his meeting in the Government headquarters. On Tuesday, Nimetz also met with Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki and President Gjorge Ivanov.

Upon his arrival to Skopje, UN mediator Matthew Nimetz, when answering the question of A1 journalist- what he expects from the meeting and whether he brings a new proposal, Nimetz responded:“I expect a lot and I will give my best”.

Nimetz did not say whether he brings a new set of ideas or if he has a new proposal for a name solution for the dispute with Greece. After seven months, this afternoon, mediator Nimemtz is scheduled to meet with President Gjorge Ivanov and Foreign Minister Antoinio Milososki and on Wednesday with PM Nikola Gruevski.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski denied at the press conference with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule that at his meeting with the MEPs Friday he tabled a concrete proposal for resolving the name issue.

“A newspaper reported yesterday that there were concrete talks about the name. I wish to deny. There weren’t such talks,” Prime Minister Gruevski said.

- Ahead of UN mediator Matthew Nimetz visit Government’s top officials will hold a meeting to discuss the name strategy. PM Gruevski does not plan a leadership meeting Nimetz visit, but he will

“There is a unique chance for you to resolve the name issue and for Macedonia to continue its EU integration,” said in Skopje Friday EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, who is visiting Macedonia for the first time.

 

The MEPs that came to Skopje Thursday heard from Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski a new idea for resolving the name issue as soon as possible.

The group of MEPs including Greek MEP Jorgos Koumoutsakos openly stated that they came to put pressure on the Macedonian authorities to use the short period of time of a few months to iron out the name issue with Greece and start accession talks with the EU. German MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis said he was satisfied with the new idea Prime Minister Gruevski presented.

- Zoran Thaler, MEP and rapporteur on Macedonia, says in his interview with the Nova Makedonija he highly values the strategy and tactic of PM Gruevski. “I highly value Gruevski’s strategy and tactic. He invests sufficient energy in finding a solution. The main problem is not whether he is prepared for a solution, but the fact that Greece had not had the readiness so far for meaningful talks. It has to be understood that Gruevski is in a position that he can’t talk about this issue openly, because of the huge responsibility. When there is a solution, it will have to be harmonized and just so that he can communicate it to the public. So I find his reserve justified,” he said.

- The European Parliament is satisfied with the reform progress in Macedonia. However, the country should focus on improving democracy, stability and economic prosperity as it suits a country aspiring to join the EU, says the draft conclusion from the meeting of the mixed parliamentary committee chaired by Aleksandar Spasenovski and Jorgo Chatzimarkakis.

Macedonia has a window of opportunities to solve the long-standing name issue with Greece, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said on Wednesday, at the  briefing with Macedonian and Croatian correspondents from Brussels.

Fule is to pay a visit to Skopje on Friday to convey the message to the Government that by June Macedonia should most probably start with negotiation talks but first it must convince the EU members that it works hard on finding a solution to the name issue.