The Skopje-based Office of the European Union provided to the Macedonian Government new guidelines that should propel the process of reforms in Macedonia before opening accession talks, EU Ambassador Erwan Fouere’s Office confirmed Monday in response to the allegations of former Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, and now member of LDP, Ivica Bocevski, that the Government has been hiding for months the European Commission’s new benchmarks. Mr. Fouere’s Office said those were not new benchmarks but merely verbal remarks concerning the areas in which, according to Brussels’ assessments, the Government lags behind.

The EU Office says that official Brussels expects the Macedonian Government to fully meet all criteria laid out in the last report of the European Commission on Macedonia’s progress.

The Secretariat for European Affairs denied that the EU provided new benchmarks.