Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski met with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn, and EU Senior Envoy for Security and Foreign Policy Javier Solana in Brussels on Thursday. Crvenkovski stressed that the violence at the parliamentary elections could affect Macedonia’s accession to NATO, but he underlined that at the moment there are no other conditions that have to be fulfilled for NATO to issue an invitation for membership to Macedonia apart from the name dispute with Greece.

NATO Secretary General Scheffer confirmed that NATO was concerned about the irregularities at the early parliamentary elections and he expressed hope that this would not be an obstacle to Macedonia’s accession to NATO.

EU Commissioner for Enlargement Rehn stated following the meeting with Crvenkovski that the November report on the progress of Macedonia would be objective, just, and balanced. He stressed that the eight benchmarks, fair elections, and resolution of the name dispute would be key for start of the negotiations for membership in the EU.

President Crvenkovski refused to comment on the disagreements with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski over the name issue, assessing this as an internal affair of the Republic of Macedonia.