EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule and Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski sent each other Thursday indirect messages concerning Macedonia’s European integration with conflicting tones. While the former strongly doubts Macedonia’s commitment and democratic institutions, the latter said he was strongly confident that Macedonia should be set a date for launching membership negotiations and that the country was impatiently waiting to contribute to the European idea, Utrinski vesnik comments.

Commissioner Fule was in fact the second official Thursday who told Macedonia it was its turn to take action considering that BDI leader Ali Ahmeti received the same message in Washington earlier. In his interview with Radio Free Europe, Fule says in no uncertain terms that Macedonia’s progress depends on the implementation of the March agreement and the fact that the deal has not yet been put into practice made him question Macedonia’s democratic capacity.