BDI is embarking on a diplomatic campaign seeking a solution to the name issue. This is the general view of BDI leader Ali Ahmeti’s visit to the United States of America and of Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Besimi’s visit to Greece. Ahmeti is set to meet high-ranking US officials in Washington, possibly even US Vice President Joe Biden, as well as mediator Matthew Nimetz. Besimi, on the other hand, is set to meet Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, Nova Makedonija reports.

What can be expected of these visits? Is it real to believe that Ahmeti and his party are capable of propelling this process forward? All analysts agree that not much should be expected yet their individual specific views differ. While according to some the contribution may be small yet significant, according to others there would be no contribution whatsoever.  Does BDI have other goals, too?  What side effects may be expected of the large-scale and expensive effort the party is taking in regard to the name issue? According to analysts, this may promote Ahmeti into a political authority equal to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. In other words, he may grow into a factor on which all processes in Macedonia, not just those relating to the interethnic relations and the ethnic rights of Albanians, depend. However, they underline this may be just a side effect, without arguing that this is the true goal behind BDI’s activities regarding the name issue.

- The third World Conference on Interreligious and Inter-civilization Dialogue will be held in Skopje from 10-12 May under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. The organizing of this conference is continuation of the humane vision of late president Boris Trajkovski.

- Albanian Foreign Minister Aldo Bumci is paying an official visit to the Republic of Macedonia upon the invitation of his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki. The focus of the talks is the bilateral talks as well as the joint cooperation in the EU and NATO. During the visit, Bumci is to meet with President Gjorge Ivanov, Speaker Trajko Veljanoski and Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Besimi.

Zoran Zaev, one of the most serious candidates to succeed Branko Crvenkovski, who officially reigned as leader of SDSM, Macedonia’s largest opposition party, has recently said he offered a new concept and a vision. He also said if he was elected new leader, he would propose Radmila Sekerinska as his deputy. It is this statement that has drawn much public attention bearing in mind that what Zaev suggests is a new way of running the party. According to his visions SDSM should be led by one president and one vice president, or a collective party mini-body, which was particularly popular in the 1980s during former Yugoslavia’s breakup. Upon Tito’s death, Yugoslavia was led by a rotating collective presidency, Nova Makedonija reports.

University Professor Zdravko Saveski says that the manner of management is a practical issue, which should help the party be as efficient as possible. In his view, more important is whether the future leader of the party carries out the genuine idea of social democracy – closeness to the people and offering tangible solutions to social problems.

-    Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov deemed as very successful his visit to Canada Thursday. From 25 to 28 April, he will be paying a working visit to Arizona, the USA, and take part in the Sedona 2013 Forum, organized by the McCain Institute for International Leadership.

The Hague, Stockholm or Skopje are the three destinations that legal experts point out as venues where a court epilogue may be sought to the four war crime cases of 2001 (NLA Leadership, Mavrovo Construction Workers, Lipkovo Dam and Neprosteno Mass Grave) despite what is known as the authentic interpretation of the amnesty law, which terminated their processing in the Macedonian judicial system, Dnevnik reports.

Both home and foreign experts say that the amnesty is invalid considering war crime cases can never become time-barred nor can they be amnestied.

The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) sent a letter to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague five days ago, requesting of the court to take back the cases it returned in 2006 considering the Macedonian judicial system, in their view, lacks capacity and considering these cases need a legal rather than a political closure. On the other hand, Jordan Apostolski, a lawyer accredited in both the ICTY and the International Court of Justice, argues that what are known as the Hague cases may be processed in Stockholm considering that under the Swedish law Swedish courts may process such cases regardless of who committed the war crimes and where.

- Germany will maintain the credibility of the enlargement process following Croatia's accession, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Bundestag officials told Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki in Berlin on Wednesday. According to Poposki, at the moment, there is no other obstacle for Macedonia other than Athens’ stance which prevents country’s accession negotiations.

Support for the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo and reserve that something similar may be done in Macedonia are the initial reactions in Macedonia following Brussels’ delight that, finally, two countries in the region, the two most problematic ones for that matter, decided to turn to the future instead of the past, Utrinski vesnik reports. Is this progress going to have any effect on Macedonia? Is it able to give a push to our integration as well? And is it going to be fair if Serbia is allowed to begin membership negotiations before Macedonia is although Macedonia was the first to receive a candidate member state status? Skepticism is the common denominator of both home and foreign analysts, the paper says.

According to Gerald Knaus from the European Stability Initiative, it has long become clear that Serbia will have a European future provided it accepts Kosovo’s independence. Now the country has been afforded that opportunity provided it takes two steps – accepting Kosovo’s independence de facto, which has been achieved with the agreement signed with Pristina, and accepting it de jure on joining the EU, as the end of the process.

- Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki who attended Tuesday the NATO meeting in Brussels, responded to his Greek counterpart Dimitris Avramopoulos that it is not a typical approach for Macedonia to find excuses and that this is someone else’s specialty. Previously, Avramopoulos said that Macedonia has failed to implement reforms and is unprepared to join the EU. Within the frames to his visit to Brussels, Poposki realized several meetings with European officials and on Wednesday he is to visit Berlin where he is to meet with German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

The Council of Ministers of the European Union is going to decide in June whether to accept the recommendation of the European Commission for setting Macedonia a date for launching membership negotiations with the EU. At its meeting in Luxembourg Monday, the Council decided to postpone the decision on Macedonia and dedicate almost the entire meeting to the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2012 and the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina.

After the meeting was over, Eamon Gilmor, Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Chairman of the General Affairs Council, said that the reports of the European Commission on Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo were presented yet no decision or conclusion was adopted.

“With respect to enlargement, our discussion focused on the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, which is a historic moment not only for these two countries but also for all of Europe. Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule presented the reports on Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia. We only tabled them and are going to take the necessary decisions at the next meeting of the General Affairs Council in June, before the Summit of the European Council,” he said.

-    The second round vote of the local elections was rerun in Centar, Gjorce Petrov and Struga and was held for the first time in Dolneni on Sunday. Andrej Zernovski from the coalition led by SDSM is the new mayor of Centar, Zijadin Sela from PDSH is the new mayor of Struga, Sokol Mitrovski from the coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE has been reelected mayor of Gjorce Petrov and Bose Milosevski from the coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE is the new mayor of Dolneni. The vote was peaceful with mutual accusations between the opposition and the government of election irregularities and with a low turnout.

- Delegation of the Macedonian Government headed by PM Nikola Gruevski arrived late Thursday in Azerbaijan and on Friday he is to hold meetings with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Artur Rasizade.  During the meetings, agreement in the sphere of tax policy will be signed and there will also be a business presentation of the benefits that Macedonia offers foreign investors.

- The Macedonian Government is satisfied with the report issued by the European Commission and Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said that the report gives hope that in the following months there will be progress in the European integration and a date for start of negotiations in June. According to him, the stance of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, in regards to the name issue, is identical to the one of the Macedonian government – a swift mutually acceptable name solution.  Gruevski denied that Baroness Ashton exercised pressure and said that he only held a general discussion with her where she showed interest for solving the problem.

Following the four successive recommendations to the European Council over the past four years, today the European Commission is sending out one more hoping that membership negotiations with the Republic of Macedonia will be launched in June, said EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule at the press conference in Strasbourg Tuesday presenting the special report on Macedonia, MIA’s Strasbourg-based correspondent reports.

The report, drafted based on the conclusions of the Summit of the European Council in December, says that progress has been made in all areas covered by the report despite the political crisis since 24 December.

“As requested by the European Council, the EC prepared a report on the implementation of EU-related reforms in the context of the High Level Accession Dialogue as well as the steps taken to promote good neighborly relations and reach a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution to the name issue under the auspices of the UN. The main conclusion of the report is that the implementation of reforms is ongoing and largely back on track after the political crisis of January-February. Relations with neighbors remained good and steps have been taken on the bilateral relations with Bulgaria and Greece,” Commissioner Fule said, adding that the name issue talks under the UN auspices gained a new momentum during this reporting period.

- Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki, who welcomed the release of the European report in Strasbourg, stated that it is an important message to all of our neighbors and especially to all those part of the EU that energy is necessary for building European relations between our countries. According to Poposki, for five years it has been confirmed that the Republic of Macedonia is prepared to launch EU negotiations and this is another proof that we are unjustly held before the start of these talks.

-    Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is coming to Skopje Tuesday afternoon. Before holding a press conference later Tuesday, she is set to have talks with President Gjorge Ivanov, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, BDI leader Ali Ahmeti and SDSM chairman Branko Crvenkovski.

The spring report that EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule is going to present in Strasbourg on Tuesday afternoon will be realistic and pragmatic, says diplomatic sources in Brussels. They told Dnevnik that the report cannot be referred to as either positive or negative, adding that Commissioner Fule obviously did not leave Skopje happy with his last visit. The most important, according to these sources, is seeing what the reaction from Athens is to this document.

On presenting the report at the European Parliament, a debate by the Members of the European Parliament is not expected. Asked whether the coming visit of Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative on Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is related to the presentation of the EC report, aiming to accelerate the resolution of the name issue, Brussels officials say that she will be visiting a number of countries in the region and so she is not bringing “anything tangible.”

The Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia and the European Movement of the Republic of Macedonia are holding an international conference – European Integration Through Cooperation of Parliaments, Civil Society and Independent Regulatory Bodies in Southeast Europe – within the framework of the Macedonian Chairmanship-in-Office of the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) in Skopje on 15 and 16 April.
 
The conference is expected to foster dialogue and sharing of experience and positive practices of European integration and confirm the willingness and capacity of the Parliament and of the Republic of Macedonia for making an active contribution to regional cooperation.

The European Union is trying to gradually close all issues in the region by the time of holding the European elections next year, analysts say. It is in this context that they see the coming visit of Catherine Ashton, EU High Representatives for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to Skopje next week, Dnevnik reports.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki confirmed Thursday Ashton’s visit to Macedonia, saying this was part of the regular communication between Macedonia and the European Commission.

“It is normal communication with the EC following the latest round of the High Level Accession Dialogue. Ashton is focused on the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina yet I do not believe that that her visit is in any way connected to the process we conduct under UN auspices for resolution of the name issue with Greece,” Minister Poposki said.

-    Karl Erjavec, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, met his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki in Skopje Thursday. Minister Erjavec said at the joint press conference that the spring report on Macedonia would be positive because the country, in addition to carrying out reforms, is making tremendous effort to promote relations with neighbors.

Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is going to visit Skopje next week, the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Thursday. According to Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki, it would be a regular visit, part of the ongoing communication between Skopje and Brussels.

Ms. Ashton’s visit to Skopje, only a week after EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule’s visit, is said to be related to Mediator Matthew Nimetz’s latest proposal in the name issue talks between Macedonia and Greece.

A day after the announcement that name issue mediator Matthew Nimetz offered the negotiators of Macedonia and Greece new ideas and considerations, officials in Athens and Skopje keep silent. This, according to analysts, is a sign that things have started to change for the better. The sole information leaked from a few Greek media, which, relying on diplomatic sources, speculate with concrete names and the adjectives “upper” and “northern,” Dnevnik reports.

Analysts say that the fact that the contents of Mr. Nimetz’s proposal have first been revealed in Greek media is a clear indication how “satisfied” Greece is with the proposal.

According to speculations, it was no coincidence that Nimetz’s meeting with negotiators Zoran Jolevski and Adamantios Vassilakis in New York overlapped with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule’s visit to Skopje and the adoption of the Resolution on Macedonia by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, arguing that membership negotiations with Macedonian should be launched in June. In addition, according to unconfirmed information, Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is set to visit Skopje next week, a day after Commissioner Fule presents the EC report on Macedonia in Brussels.

- The Euro-integration process is priority of the entire region and it represents a driving force for the reforms implemented in candidate countries. This is the conclusion from the second informal meeting of ministers of foreign affairs of the Southeast European Cooperation Process participating states. Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Poposki said that the neighbors must valorize the region’s achievements and acknowledge the EU membership benefits by enlarging the club with countries from the region and stop abusing the membership by hindering their road to the EU.

How much longer do you intend to wait outside the EU’s door? As time passes by, despite the enormous effort made, I have no feeling that your country’s image in the eyes of Brussels and the European capitals has improved. How important do you think this is? How focused do you think we are on the High Level Accession Dialogue? Why do you think we have come here to see how you meet all Copenhagen criteria? Do you believe that what we saw happening on 24 December was a sign to us that the most important democratic institutions in your country are weakening? The report is not yet over and you have just contributed to it.

These are some of the questions that EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule raised before the Macedonian Members of Parliament and of the National European Integration Council, provoked by the mutual accusations about whose fault the 24 December incidents was and who is to blame for the election irregularities. He also said all were responsible for the implementation of the political dialogue, Dnevnik reports.

- Mediator Matthew Nimetz put forward a new name proposal to the Macedonian and Greek negotiators, Zoran Jolevski and Adamantios Vassilakis, that must be examined thoroughly from the Macedonian and Greek governments. Nimetz is prepared to visit the region but at the meetings it was not agreed whether the resumption of talks would take place in New York or in the region. Nimetz underlined that the UN had been demonstrating increased interest in the name row adding that Tuesday’s meeting was attended by UN Under-Secretary – General Jeffrey Feltman for the first time.  

- The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee with 38 votes in favor and 13 against adopted Monday a Resolution on the 2012 progress report on Macedonia. With the resolution, the European Council is urged to set a date for opening of accession talks with Macedonia without further delay. According to rapporteur Richard Howitt, this is a major achievement and he said that he is proud to have been part of the team that helped reach a solution to the political crisis in Macedonia. Howitt emphasized that according to his given promise, the European Parliament will adopt a positive report on Macedonia.

- The State Election Commission (SEC) presented the results for 29 municipalities where data has been completely processed from all polling stations and SEC did not have the results for municipalities of Centar, Cair and City Skopje. According to data, BDI’s candidates won in the municipalities of Aracinovo, Brvenica, Vrapciste, Gostivar and Tetovo while in the candidates of VMRO-DPMNE in Berovo, Bitola, Bogdanci, Butel, Veles, Debarca, Delcevo, Gjorce Petrov, Jegunovce, Kavadarci, Karbinci, Kocani. The Serbian Progressive Party won in Municipality of Karpos, SDSM won in Kumanovo while PDSH candidate Zijadin Sela in Struga. Koce Trajanovski has the lead in Skopje, Andrej Zernovski in Centar, Zoran Zaev won in Strumica whereas BDI has the lead in Cair.

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.

The European Union draws upon respect of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights including minority rights. High representatives of the EU member states, including Greek President Karolos Papoulias, guarantee this with their signatures on the EU Treaty. However, reality in Greece in regard to respecting minority rights of Macedonians differs from what the Treaty says.

Dnevnik has turned to a number of EU institutions asking them whether the Union is taking any action in respect to the fact that Greece as a member state does nothing to secure the rights and liberties of the Macedonian minority. A motive for doing this is the recently filed petition of the Macedonians from Ovcarani, Greece, to the local authorities of Greece that the Macedonian language should be introduced in primary schools, which has not been the case so far in the EU member state supposed to be a leader in honoring democratic standards. The Office of Viviane Reding, Deputy President of the European Commission, asked Dnevnik to give them a concrete example illustrating that Macedonians are discriminated against. When Dnevnik sent them the report of Gay McDougall, the independent United Nations minority expert, in which she demands of Greece to let Macedonians freely express their ethnic identity, Brussels passed the ball to Athens.

- Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski met Tuesday in Belgrade with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and discussed the challenges facing the countries in view of the expected date for start of EU membership negotiations, the name row and the church dispute between Macedonia and Serbia and ways to resolve it.