Early parliamentary elections should not be held this spring. However, a new and serious attempt should be made at holding a second meeting between Nikola Gruevski and Branko Cvenkovski with specific proposals and decisions that would make sure the opposition returns to Parliament. Macedonia must not miss the chance that Brussels offers: being set a date for opening membership talks with the EU in June after making small progress in the name issue talks with Greece. These are the highlights of the messages that EU Commissioner Stefan Fule told the two leaders during his brief visit to Skopje Wednesday as regards the political situation in the country and that have been communicated to Dnevnik by domestic diplomatic and party sources. VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM have not yet issued official statements revealing details about what exactly Enlargement Commissioner Fule told them.

Commissioner Fule paid Macedonia Wednesday an unannounced yet planned visit. The reason for it is the spring report of the European Commission about Macedonia’s progress in the process of European integration, which will be useful at the June summit of the EU expected to be crucial for the start of Macedonia’s EU accession talks in the autumn. The direct motive of the visit is the political crisis created when Branko Crvenkovski pulled the SDSM MPs out of Parliament following the incident on 24 December and has since been demanding early parliamentary elections as a condition for not boycotting the local poll scheduled for 24 March.

“I went to Macedonia to talk with the prime minister, the head of state and the leader of the opposition SDSM political party about important matters in the country and the responsibilities that the country has as an EU candidate member state before opening talks with the European Commission. I am an optimist at heart and believe that the government and the opposition are going to settle their disagreements,” Commissioner Fule said in Strasbourg on Thursday.