President Gjorge Ivanov who is on a working visit to the USA met Wednesday with US senator John McCain and representatives of the Peace Corps. Ivanov held a meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman who stressed that as long as Macedonia was out of the NATO the problems within the country would get more complicated.

Macedonia will most probably evade street protests outside the state institutions as a way to come out from the political crisis in Macedonia. This scenario that over the past few days began to be announced in some media and in appearances of certain people will still withdraw itself before the standpoints by the key political actors in Macedonia- that the showdown of the crisis should be looked for through a political dialogue.

Opposition SDSM and governing VMRO-DPMNE on Wednesday were categorical that this scenario would be catastrophic and at no price would anyone allow the problems to be solved by boycotting the parliament and street protests as seen in the case with Albania, Tunisia…

Interview with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski for A1 Television with editor in chief Mladen Cadikovski and journalist Borjan Jovanovski outside the Government building in Skopje on 31 January presented verbatim

Cadikovski: Good evening. What you are to see right now may seem to you a little unusual. We, the people from Pero Nakov bb came here on Ilindenska bb and have been airing news from here over the past few days. The chief so to say on Ilindenska bb is Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.  Mr. Gruevski, it is probably a matter of hours when A1 stops working altogether. Why did you shoot at A1’s heart with your last move of blocking its account?
PM Gruevski: Thank you for the question. Let me first say that I have not been invited to be a guest in your news shows or in your television for nearly two years. There have been public appeals recently for me to come but you have not done it properly as you used to do when you wanted me to be your guest. You have not given me the chance to be a guest in your news shows and therefore through my chief of staff I was forced to ask if I may appear on your show to discuss the recent events that you have been reporting and commenting on the way that you have.  So I am happy to have been given the chance to appear on your program after nearly two years.  I would like to stress that these days we have had a situation in which theses have been swapped. The whole situation that started regarding the Pero Nakov case started after a court ruling had been taken and not because of a government decision. The Government has neither a legal right nor does it want to close A1. A1 and the other firms in Pero Nakov Street received a ruling from the relevant court…

Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski convened an urgent session for Tuesday, as an attempt to return the opposition MPs to the seats.

“Considering that the opposition’s vice president and the coordinators of the opposition parties did not attend the coordination meeting, I decided to convene an urgent session for Tuesday focused on the media situation and the events related to case Pero Nakov BB and A1 TV. I do not want and I will not allow the Parliament to be hostage of the interests of certain political parties,” said speaker Veljanovski. Opposition parties SDSM, NSDP, NA, LP and DR, despite the Speaker’s call, are not expected to attend this session.

The major opposition political party SDSM walked out of the Parliament in protest against the blocking of the accounts of A1 television and the papers Vreme, Spic and Koha e Re, said opposition leader Branko Crvenkovski. VMRO-DPMNE wished him luck and accused him of protecting crime by deciding to boycott the Parliament.

NSDP and the MPs Stojan Andov and Gjorgji Orovcanec joined SDSM as well. A total of 32 MPs together with the parliamentary group of PDSH, which has been boycotting the Parliament for a year and a half now, are out of the Parliament at the moment. LDP is the only opposition party that has remained in the Parliament.

- Serbia is to help Macedonia to get access to the files of collaborators of former Yugoslav secret services, confirmed Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, who met with Macedonian counterpart Gordana Jankulovska in Skopje, Saturday. Dacic presented a draft-text to Jankulovska that would enable citizens from Macedonia and Serbia to cross the border only with identification cards.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki will not participate at the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the South East European Co-operation Process member states in Budva due to delay of flight to Podgorica because of fog and snow at Skopje "Aleksandar the Great" Airport. The meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas has also been cancelled which should have taken place at the sidelines of the meeting.

“I hope that the meeting with counterpart Droutsas will be held when there will be less fog in the bilateral relations,” stated Milososki after receiving information that he will be unable to arrive on time for the meeting in Budva.

In an interview with Radio free Europe, Minister Milososki said that the Friday meeting would be yet another opportunity for both parties to reaffirm once again their support for mediator Matthew Nimetz and the process being carried out under UN auspices.

As against the optimism of President Ivanov that a compromise with Greece may soon be reached, Greek PM George Papandreou does not think so.  The leader of New Democracy in Greece, Antonis Samaras, said in the Greek Parliament that the greatest success of the Greek foreign policy was vetoing Macedonia’s accession to NATO in Bucharest. Greek Foreign Minister Droutsas harshly criticized Samaras for the reckless use of the word “veto” for it harmed the national interests of Greece against which Macedonia filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.

 

The continuous instability in Albania may have serious consequences for the region, the US global intelligence company Stratfor warns.

The power of the government in Tirana is always weak because of the great division of society into clans and the significant impact of criminal groups. Therefore Albania may easily plunge into chaos, which may have serious regional consequences for two reasons.

The government of the Federal Republic of Germany has signed an agreement avoiding double taxation with the Republic of Macedonia, which will allow additional facilitation of the trade exchange between both countries.

The governing coalition in Macedonia is not concerned by a possible spillover of the Albanian crisis into Macedonia. BDI leader Ali Ahmeti believes it is everyone’s democratic right to protest yet this must not turn into violence. Deputy Prime Minister Abdulakim Ademi, also from BDI, is concerned by the situation in Albania but told Lajm he did not believe it would get out of hand. Asked whether the crisis in Albania would have an impact on Macedonia or spill over, Prime Minister Gruevski said he did not expect that for he saw no reason in Macedonia.

Opposition SDSM warned that the crisis may spill over from Albania to Macedonia if PM Gruevski’s regime continues to violate human rights and liberties and to threaten and pressurize independent media, the civic sector, the judiciary and the non-like-minded. SDSM sources, which Vreme spoke to, say that the Albanian scenario and massive and violent demonstrations against the government may happen to Macedonia as well because of the grave economic situation in the country.

With personal insults and accusations as to what party had or has more informers, the MPs of SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE started Thursday the debate concerning the modifications to the law on determining an additional condition for filling a public office proposed by ruling VMRO-DPMNE and BDI, Dnevnik reports.

Considering how the debate went, it is hardly likely, the paper comments, that the government and the opposition are going to reach a consensus over the modifications, which is an indispensable condition for such an important law, although SDSM produced no concrete remarks Thursday. What the opposition finds disputable is the lustration scope, the extension of the period subject to lustration to 2019 and the provision stipulating that only original documents should be filed to the lustration commission.

Tobacco farmers are starting civic disobedience Thursday as a form of protest against the low tobacco buyout price. The president of the striking board, Kire Nedelkovski, said that with civic disobedience they would express their anger over the fact that their demands had not been met and the conclusions proposed to the Parliament by the opposition had been rejected.

The Parliament discussed Tuesday the problem of the tobacco farmers, who waited for the outcome of the debate outside the Parliament building in a tense atmosphere. What the MPs adopted as a conclusion were recommendations, appeals and suggestions for analyses of a number of segments in the tobacco farming industry. The Parliament recommended the registered purchase firms direct dialogue with the tobacco farmers appealing for objective tobacco evaluation and dismissing those who misuse their positions for personal and other interests. It also recommended that the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture should continue keeping close control of the buyout and if necessary to intensify the control further.

Slim are the chances for the political parties to reach a consensus over the constitutional changes proposed by the Government under which Macedonia, based on an international agreement, can extradite Macedonian citizens to other countries as well as to seek extradition of foreign citizens wanted for organized crime and corruption.

Although opposition SDSM and Demokracia e Re backed the first stage of the procedure at the meeting of the parliamentary committee for constitutional affairs Monday, they stressed that they would not support the proposal unless their demands for constitutional changes were accepted as well.

Macedonia’s strategic goals – membership of NATO and the EU, the 20th anniversary of Macedonia’s independence, the 10th anniversary of the Framework Agreement, as well as the census that should be taken in April this year - will be the main topics of the leaders’ meeting that President Ivanov scheduled for 21 January.

His office has already sent invitations to the leaders of VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM, BDI, PDSH and Demokracia e Re but it is still uncertain whether all are going to attend the meeting to be held in the Jasen reserve.

“The objective of the meeting is continuing President Ivanov’s regular consultations with the most relevant political parties,” his office said.

The collaborators of the secret services that informed on other people for ideological and other reasons, as well as for personal gain will not be looked for solely among incumbent functionaries. The lustration committee is also going to investigate former functionaries that are still alive and do not fill any public office. The MPs of ruling VMRO-DPMNE and BDI drafted the modifications to the lustration law announced three months ago, Nova Makedonija reports.

In addition to the retroactive effect of the lustration law the government retained the position to extend the period subject to lustration to the present day.

- Macedonia will receive 50 million euros this year from the World Bank intended for a number of projects, said Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski after meeting Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, World Bank managing director.

Hungary’s ambassador to Macedonia Ferenc Kékesi at Tuesday's session of the Parliament's Committee on European Affairs presented the program and priorities of the Hungarian EU Presidency and stressed that Hungary is ready to assist in the name row and actively take part if the two sides require it. European ambassador Erwan Fouere stressed the importance of the laws' enforcement and their harmonization with the EU Acquis, as well as the necessity for political and social consensus over the Census. Deputy PM Vasko Naumovski expects 2011 to be the crucial year for Macedonia's Euro-integration.

 

Transitioning from a one-party system to democracy, a referendum for independence, the Constitution, the coat-of arms and the flag, the Ohrid Framework Agreement translated into constitutional provisions in order to improve the treatment of the ethnic groups, ratification of international agreements under which Macedonia joined the United Nations and the World Bank and so on and so forth.

These are the historic achievements of the Parliament in the two decades since its establishment.

Macedonia is ready to enter the new round of talks for finding a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue, said the Macedonian Ambassador to the USA, Zoran Jolevski, following the announcements that after a break of nearly a year a new meeting would take place in New York on 9 February between mediator Nimetz and the negotiators of Macedonia and Greece.

“The Republic of Macedonia is ready at any time, in any format and at any place to meet mediator Nimetz and my colleague Vassilakis so that we can share views of how we can solve the open issue with our southern neighbor. Macedonia is sincerely ready to enter these talks to find a mutually acceptable solution that will protect the identity and dignity of the Macedonians,” Ambassador Jolevski, who is also negotiator in the name issue talks, said in his interview with The Voice of America.

Tobacco farmers threatened they would block the Macedonian-Greek border crossing Medzitlija Wednesday. They have been blocking the regional roads Prilep-Gradsko, Prilep-Bitola, Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid-Demir Hisar and Prilep-Krusevo for a few hours for the past 5-6 days, Dnevnik reports and have been boycotting the tobacco buyout in protest against, as they say, the offending price of merely 120 denars per kg.

Representatives of the tobacco farmers came to a meeting in the Ministry of Agriculture Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime, their anger escalated. Stevan Stojanovski took his tobacco yield to a buyout point but returned it home shortly afterwards.

- Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, who is paying a private visit to Israel, had a meeting Tuesday in Jerusalem with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman.According to a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both ministers expressed satisfaction with the development of overall relations between the two countries.

UN mediator Matthew Nimetz is going to meet the representatives of Macedonia and Greece, Zoran Jolevski and Adamantios Vassilakis, in New York on 27 January, MFA sources confirmed. Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said last week Macedonia accepted immediately the invitation for a new meeting.

- Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski stressed in his annual address to the nation that 2011 would be a year in which Macedonia would continue working tirelessly to achieve a higher economic growth. The effort to seek out a solution to the name issue will continue too to unblock Macedonia’s integration into the EU and NATO. Congratulating the New Year, he stressed however that the most important thing was having internal unity and mutual respect.

 

 MIC is Wishing You Happy New Year

Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki chaired a meeting of the Diplomatic Council on Wednesday which was attended by several Macedonian ambassadors deployed around the world. The meeting was set to focus on activities in 2011 in terms of Euro and Euro-Atlantic integration and this year's EU presidencies by Hungary and Poland. Milososki assessed that Macedonia’s diplomacy in 2010 was solid.

"Our diplomatic success should be analyzed in line with our activities, taking into consideration the circumstances surrounding the activities. Nevertheless, the European Commission's positive report, its recommendation affirmed by the Council of EU - as well as other international activities, including Macedonia's chairmanship with the Council of Europe, lay a good foundation to regard 2010 as a solid year in terms of international activities," Milososki stated.

The ambassadors also met with President Gjorgje Ivanov.

SDSM, the biggest opposition political party, brought the charges against Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska and Public Revenue Office Director Goran Trajkovski, which SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski announced last week, with the basic public prosecution Tuesday.

The charges have been filed for abuse of official powers and pertain to the scandal with the large amount of money found with the driver of the company Media Print Macedonia and the affair of paying for party advertisements with state money.

BDI leader Ahmeti is touring municipalities and meeting citizens. The meetings started last week and, according to BDI’s plans, will continue in the future too, Nova Makedonija reports.

Party sources says that Ahmeti’s intention is to persuade citizens not to boycott the census in April as advocated by the other Albanian parties, especially Imer Selmani’s Demokracia e Re.

The entire assets of media mogul Velija Ramkovski, the owner of A1 television, the daily newspapers Vreme, Spic and *** e Re will not be frozen although he and another 13 suspects in the operation “Cobweb” have been detained on suspicion of having committee crime of 17 million euros. According to the Interior Ministry, Ramkovski created a criminal group suspected of money laundering, tax evasion, criminal association, embezzlement and deceiving creditors.