The progress made in the five key areas pointed out in the December report of the European Council, being part of the High Level Accession Dialogue, will be the talking point at the meetings with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule set to visit Macedonia on Tuesday (9 April), Dnevnik reports.

Fatmir Besimi, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, said at a press conference Thursday that he expected the EC to draft an objective report on the reforms in judiciary, rule of law, public administration, freedom of media, Ohrid Agreement implementation and functional market economy.  He expects stress to be laid on the fulfillment of the political criteria considering that the political situation and elections are being closely watched by the European Union. In this regard, he said it was important that the second round of the local elections was peaceful, fair and democratic.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on its part, is drafting a report on the progress achieved in promoting good neighborly relations and the name issue talks.