Srgjan Kerim, the President of the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly, announced President Branko Crvenkovski as president of the Republic of Macedonia on Tuesday. Dr. Kerim did not use the reference of FYROM, and explained that he was obliged to observe the dignity of every UN member country, including his own. At the end of his speech, President Crvenkovski said his country's name is and will be Republic of Macedonia in spite of all the procedural remarks from the Greek administration, which received a big applause.
The parliamentarians of the Albanian parties were engaged in a physical fight in the Parliament yesterday, the media report. Dnevnik reports that BDI parliamentarian Sadula Duraku hit PPD leader Abdylhadi Vejseli and then entered into a fight with Ruzhdi Matoshi from PDSH.
The Government and the opposition negotiated in the Assembly yesterday on finishing the debate on the Election Code and starting a debate on the laws from the European agenda. There are 23 laws that are crucial for Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Among them are the laws on the Public Prosecution, the council of public prosecutors, and completion of the Judicial Council.
•Prime Minister Gruevski accepted President Crvenkovski s proposal on designating professional diplomats from Foreign Ministry to fill vacant ambassador posts.
Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Sunday evening. Crvenkovski and Ban Ki-moon discussed the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece, the status of Kosovo, and the issues that will be discussed at the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, which will start today, A1 reports.
Macedonia's National Coordinator for NATO Nikola Dimitrov presented Macedonia's Annual Program for NATO Membership in Brussels on Thursday.
Dimitrov said all NATO officials expressed hope this would be Macedonia's last annual program for NATO membership. In his view, in spite of the many conditions the Alliance sets, the ongoing reforms will be sufficient for the country to hope to be admitted in April next year.
As of 1 January year 2008, Macedonian citizens will be able to obtain visas for the countries from the Schengen zone easier and quicker. Whether or not Macedonian citizens will be able to travel to the EU without visas anytime soon will depend solely on Macedonia's efforts to satisfy the European Union's security requirements.
Five NATO member countries would certainly vote for accession of Macedonia to NATO next year, A1 reports. These countries are the United States, Great Britain, Turkey, Slovenia, and Romania, and they are Macedonia's biggest supporters. The Slovenian Embassy, which is the contact embassy for NATO in Macedonia, stressed that the sentiment in NATO regarding accession of Macedonia is positive.
President Branko Crvenkovski accepted yesterday Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s invitation to talks on issues of national interest. President Crvenkovski also stressed that he would give up his constitutional right to nominate two candidates for the Judicial Council and he would accept the candidates that the Government and opposition will agree on, for the good of the national interests and the country's Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Crvenkovski also said that he would accept the Government’s candidates for the vacant ambassador posts, as long as they are nominated from the Foreign Ministry’s list of professional diplomats.
- The IMF Mission is satisfied with the Government’s fiscal objectives concerning the Budget deficit, Mark Griffiths, head of the IMF Mission to Macedonia, said following his meeting with Finance Minister Trajko Slaveski yesterday. The IMF Mission is in Macedonia on regular consultations with government officials regarding the third review of the arrangement with IMF.
The Council of Europe called for a consensus on the Election Code. Macedonian parliamentarians Andrej Zernovski from LDP and Oliver Sambevski from VMRO-DPMNE attended the session of the Monitoring-Commission of the Council of Europe, which discussed Macedonia's democratic progress.
If Greece's threats of vetoing Macedonia's accession to EU and NATO turn into reality, Greece will violate the Interim Accord. This will mean that Macedonia's obligations towards this accord, including the obligation of holding talks on the name in New York, will no longer be pertinent, Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski said in Skopje yesterday.
The European Union and NATO are monitoring the events in Macedonia following the armed incident in Vaksince. They do not believe that the security situation in the country has deteriorated and they consider the incident in Vaksince confrontation with criminals.
Spain supports Macedonia's candidacy for membership in EU and NATO, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said following his meeting with Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki in Madrid yesterday. Milososki and Moratinos also discussed Macedonia's name dispute with Greece.
With 52 votes against and 30 in favor, the Macedonian Parliament did not adopt the conclusions that SDSM and BDI proposed as regards the armed incident in Vaksince, in which the commander officer of the police station of Matejce got killed, and two of his colleagues were injured.
The Macedonian Parliament accepted the proposal of MP Ivan Ivanovski from SDSM for changing the agenda of today's parliamentary meeting and debating the recent events in the village of Vaksince and their implications on Macedonia's security.
The commanding officer of the police station in Matejce was killed Sunday night in a gunfight with unidentified assailants in the village of Vaksince. Interior Minister Spokesperson Ivo Kotevski explained to MIA that the shooting broke out after a police patrol was dispatched to arrest a man, whose identity is not yet revealed. The skirmish left two assailants dead and two policemen injured.
President Branko Crvenkovski addressed the nation on the occasion of 8 September, Independence Day of the Republic of Macedonia, and underlined that after 16 difficult years of transition, Macedonia had grown into a country well established in the international community with a clear vision of being a member of NATO and the European Union.
The amendments to the Election Code provoked a big political confrontation between VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM. SDSM Chairwoman Radmila Sekerinska told the electronic media that these amendments are an attempt for election rigging.
Former National Bank Governor Ljube Trpevski, who is indicted for breach of duty and embezzlement of over $40 million state money, defended himself six hours in the Skopje Court yesterday. Spic and Vreme report that Trpevski disclosed incriminating documents on all governments of independent Macedonia.
The proposed amendments to the Election Code that foresee 10 guaranteed parliamentary seats for the smaller ethnic communities set the Government and the opposition against each other, the media report.
Early on Sunday morning, around 50 special policemen, without shooting or provoking any incidents, arrested Xhemail Iseni in his home in the village of Lojane. Iseni was taken back to the Skopje prison where he has 5 years left to serve for terrorism. He will be separately tried for escaping from prison and keeping weapons in his home.
There is no relation between Macedonia's accession to NATO and the resolving of the Kosovo issue. We should invest maximum effort into finding a positive resolution for Kosovo, but this is in no way related to Macedonia's integration into NATO, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung assessed following yesterday's meeting with Macedonian Defense Minister Lazar Elenovski in Skopje.
The state leadership is convinced that Macedonia would receive an invitation for membership in NATO in spring. Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said yesterday, "there are no announcements from Brussels that Macedonia's integration into NATO could be postponed as a result of the events related to Kosovo. We are certain that Macedonia and the other two members of the Adriatic Group, Croatia and Albania, will celebrate the invitation for NATO at next year's NATO Summit."
