NATO will send an encouraging message from Riga to the members of the Adriatic Group: Macedonia, Croatia, and Albania. This is the message that NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sent from Brussels yesterday.
The issue of demarcation of the border with Macedonia should be part of the package for resolving of the status of Kosovo. This is the official position of both Macedonia and UNMIK. The Kosovo authorities, who until now insisted on the border issue being discussed after Kosovo receives independence, now agree to the demarcation being "within the context of the status".
The reforms in the Justice Ministry and Interior Ministry are necessary for Macedonia's integration into the European Union. But these key ministries are also the most difficult ministries to reform, Deputy Prime Minister Gabriela Konevska-Trajkovska assessed at yesterday's debate in Skopje "Macedonia toward the unique space of justice, freedom, and security of the EU".
The EU parliamentarians will not let the dispute over the name become a condition for Macedonia's integration with the European Union, regardless of how much pressure official Athens exerts on this issue.
The parliamentary elections brought Macedonia positive points. But now it is time to restart the reforms that were slowed down in year 2006 and to secure political consensus so that Macedonia can receive a date for start of the negotiations for membership, European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn stressed at yesterday's meeting with Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki in Brussels.
Dialogue with monologues. This was the opposition's assessment of the two-day debate in Mavrovo, which was attended by political party leaders and international community representatives. This round table was dedicated to the implementation of the Ohrid agreement, the country's Euro-Atlantic integration, and the differences between the Government and the opposition. The leaders of the two biggest Albanian parties in Macedonia, BDI's Ali Ahmeti and PDSH's Arben Xhaferi, did not attend the meeting.
Macedonia has strategic importance on the Balkans and it is an esteemed friend of Turkey, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski yesterday. The Macedonian president, who is on his first official visit to Turkey, also received strong support from Sezer for Macedonia's membership in NATO. This support will be expressed clearly at the NATO Summit in Riga toward the end of this month, "Dnevnik" reports.
The strategy of the World Bank for Partnership with the Republic of Macedonia over the next four years stipulates that the country receives 220 to 300 million euros depending on the rate at which reforms are conducted.
As Macedonia draws closer to the European Union, political consensus becomes more important, Pierre Mirel, Director in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement, told Dnevnik.
More than 500 members of five youth organizations protested on the streets of Skopje yesterday, demanding liberalization of the visa regime. They were joined by a few members of the Union of Young Forces of VMRO-DPMNE.
Membership in the European Union and NATO will be to great advantage of both the peoples from the Western Balkans and Europe as a whole, Geoff Hoon, Minister for Europe in the British Government, stressed. Hoon is currently on a visit to Skopje, where he will meet with the Macedonian political leadership today.
The third Vienna Economic Forum, one of whose sponsors is also Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at the invitation of the Forum's president and founder, the special coordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe, Erhard Busek, is taking place on 6 and 7 November.
Radmila Sekerinska is the new leader of SDSM, while Goran Mincev is the new secretary general of the party. This is the result of the elections at the SDSM congress held in Skopje on Saturday.
The media speculate that this represents defeat of the wing of former party Chairman Vlado Buckovski and his candidate for secretary general Ljupco Jordanovski.
Interview with Antonio Milososki, Minister of Foreign Affairs with Macedonian Diplomatic Bulletin
"Considering all the parameters, including those that do not depend on us and our results, I believe that being given a date for start of membership negotiations in 2007 will truly be a success," Antonio Milososki, Minister of Foreign Affairs, says in his interview for the first issue of the new Macedonian Diplomatic Bulletin, reported verbatim by micnews.com.mk.
The Macedonian Diplomatic Bulletin is a publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs promoting transparency of work.
MDB: Minister Milososki, you have been holding this office for slightly over a month. What are your first impressions of the Ministry at Dame Gruev St. No. 6?
Milososki: I am getting the complete picture as I go. Diplomacy implies an established system functional at all times and I am glad to conclude that this is the case with the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a Minister, I will certainly set the major guidelines in keeping with the Government's foreign policy. I also have new thoughts, initiatives and ideas and I would like that they prompt a positive reaction of motivation and creativity. In order to be successful, diplomacy needs stability coupled with new energy. I want to be the mainstay of that new energy and I have the impression that the experienced diplomats will work in the same spirit.
NATO will send an encouraging message from Riga to the members of the Adriatic Group: Macedonia, Croatia, and Albania. This is the message that NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sent from Brussels yesterday.
The reforms in the Justice Ministry and Interior Ministry are necessary for Macedonia's integration into the European Union. But these key ministries are also the most difficult ministries to reform, Deputy Prime Minister Gabriela Konevska-Trajkovska assessed at yesterday's debate in Skopje "Macedonia toward the unique space of justice, freedom, and security of the EU".
