Despite the small progress, we cannot be satisfied with that which we achieved this year, Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski assessed in his annual address yesterday. He warned that the country is at a crossroads: it will either join the European Union together with Croatia or immediately after Croatia, or it will remain in the same group as the other Western Balkan countries whose accession to the EU is uncertain.

The members of the Government and the VMRO-DPMNE and PDSH parliamentarians boycotted the president's address. The NSDP parliamentarians were present in the assembly, but the NSDP ministers were not.

"A few significant steps forward were made, but not as much as we could have or should have done. The political turbulence and confrontations raised doubt among our friends in Brussels, not about whether we have the capacity to secure a date for start of the negotiations for membership, but whether we will justify the trust invested in us with the candidate status," the president said.