BUCKOVSKI: ING CHANGED POSITION DUE TO FINANCIAL, NOT POLITICAL REASONS
admin1 – April 21, 2006 – 3:16pm

Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski stated today that he received information from the Macedonian delegation that attended the consultations with ING representatives in Amsterdam that there is a new offer for Postenska Banka, which will be assessed by the Macedonian Government over the next few days.

"The request of SEAF and the Dutch Development Fund, in which the Dutch Finance Ministry owns 51 percent of the shares and ING and Dutch bank ABN AMRO 49 percent, for the talks to continue is something that we should discuss further. We need to see whether the state and Eurostandard will recognize their interest in this new proposal that arrived from Holland and whether a new transaction, which is currently on the table, can be made, in accordance with the role that the National Bank of Macedonia has", Buckovski said.

The prime minister believes that the reasons why ING changed its position are purely financial and not political, that is, that they are not related to the claims that Holland's policy regarding expansion of the EU reaches some bank circles.