The Foreign Ministry distanced itself from Deputy Foreign Minister Zoran Petrov’s statement that UN mediator Matthew Nimetz’s last proposals for resolution of the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece are nebulous.

“We have no information that Nimetz reacted to this. Petrov gave this statement at a party debate and this is his personal opinion. The Foreign Ministry’s position is clear – Macedonia will continue to take part in these talks constructively and with arguments,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Petar Culev stated on Sunday.

The United Nations asked of Greece to recognize the existence of the Macedonian and Turkish minorities. In the report of the independent minority rights expert Gay McDougall, Greece is asked to protect these groups in keeping with the Declaration on Minorities and the basic international agreements on human rights. Greece is also expected to fully implement the decisions of the European Court for Human Rights that allows minority associations to use of the words "Macedonian" and "Turkish" in their names and to freely express their identity.

Approximately 1,000 redundant workers with over 25 years of service protested outside the government building on Wednesday, demanding that the Government resolve their future material status. Yesterday’s protest was exhausting for many redundant workers who have health problems. An elderly protestor fainted and was transferred to hospital with an ambulance.

This was the third protest held in the last three weeks. The redundant workers announced that more protests would be held. Representatives of the redundant workers and the Alliance of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) met with Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Stavreski in the government building yesterday. He heard their problems, but he did not offer a solution.

- Prime Minister Gruevski condemned the incident in Ohrid when the name of Macedonia was sprayed on a few Greek tourist buses and said there was no need for Greece to appeal to its citizens not to come to Macedonia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs assessed as exaggerated the Greek reaction and rejected the allegations that the spraying of the buses was a result of the nationalism and lack of tolerance of the incumbent Government toward Greece. The Ministry appealed that the isolated incident in Macedonia, as well as the tens of others in Greece, the victims of which were Macedonian citizens, should not be abused for pursuing political goals.

- Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Bocevski said at the Conference "EU Expansion - Five Years After" in Prague, the Czech Republic, that Macedonia and the other countries of the Western Balkans needed clarity and predictability in the process of expansion precisely put in a timeframe as was the case with the countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007.

The leaders of the four biggest political parties in the country – VMRO-DPMNE’s Nikola Gruevski, SDSM’s Zoran Zaev, BDI’s Ali Ahmeti, and PDSH’s Menduh Thaci – held a meeting on Sunday at which they confirmed that their main objective is holding of fair and democratic elections. Thaci left the meeting early, accusing the Government of not being serious.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski called on all political parties, their activists, the state institutions, and citizens to contribute toward holding of fair and democratic elections. He stressed that the party leaders agreed that all measures should be taken to ensure that the elections are held in a fair atmosphere. “I am encouraged, as we made sufficient preparations at these meetings to ensure fair and democratic elections, which will be a victory for Macedonia and its citizens,” Gruevski said after the meeting.

Macedonian Assembly Chairman Trajko Veljanoski met with Czech Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Miloslav Vlček, French National Assembly President Bernard Accoyer, Speaker of the Swedish Riksdag Per Erik Gunnar Westerberg, and German Bundestag President Norbert Lammert at the Conference of presidents of parliament of the EU member states in Paris. They all voiced support for Macedonia’s integration in the EU. Veljanoski also held a brief meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the reception organized by the French president for the parliament speakers.

- According to a State Department report, Macedonia in general respects the human rights of its citizens. However, there are problems in the police and judicial systems. According to this report, media are divided down ethnic and political lines, especially when it comes to important political issues. The government in general respects the freedom of speech and media. It is however accused of putting pressure and threatening media that do not report about it favorably.

- Macedonia marks fifth anniversary of tragic death of former President Boris Trajkovski today. On occasion of this anniversary, documentary film called "Remembering Boris" will be promoted.

The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) expressed concern about the position of the Macedonians in Bulgaria in its report, noting that no progress has been made as regards this issue.

VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gjorgji Ivanov stated that he would agree to hold a TV duel with his opponent from SDSM Ljubomir Frckoski only if Frckoski apologizes publicly for the untruths that he told about him.

“I can accept a duel with Frckoski only when he apologizes, seeing as Frckoski wants to blame others for things that he did himself, with the aim of avoiding responsibility,” Ivanov stressed.

The leaders of the four biggest political parties held a meeting on the upcoming elections on Sunday. They discussed and reached an agreement on a number of issues that are supposed to guarantee fair and democratic elections.

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis admitted for the first time that Greece decided to veto Macedonia’s accession to NATO back in year 2007, that is, a whole year before the NATO Summit in Bucharest. The Macedonian Foreign Ministry interpreted this statement by the Greek foreign minister as a direct confession by Greece that it never intended to hold serious talks on the name dispute, but that it only took part in these talks formally, all the time looking for an excuse for the talks to fail.

Macedonia remains U.S.’s strategic partner. Judging by recent statements, there are no changes in U.S.’s policy toward Macedonia, Macedonian Ambassador to Washington Zoran Jolevski said in an interview for Deutsche Welle.

There is no analogy between the Macedonian-Greek dispute and the Croatian-Slovenian dispute, Slovenian President Danilo Turk and Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski stated in Skopje on Tuesday. Turk, who is on a two-day official visit to Macedonia, stressed that Slovenia supports Macedonia in its EU integration process. President Crvenkovski noted following the meeting with Turk that Greece, unlike Macedonia, has nothing to lose if the talks on the name dispute are slowed down. Slovenian President Turk also met with Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Assembly Chairman Trajko Veljanoski.

•Slovenian President Danilo Turk starting a 2-day visit to Macedonia today.

Koce Trajanovski from VMRO-DPMNE, Tito Petkovski from NSDP and SDSM, Mirjana Najcevska from LDP, Shefket Zekoli from BDI, Argetim Nagavci from New Democracy, Lazar Elenovski from the Social Democratic Union, Straso Angelovski from VMRO-DP and TMRO, Trpe Gruevski from SDPM, Janko Bacev from NDM, Dusko Popovski from LPM, and Dragi Kolcakovski from VMRO-NP. These are the candidates that submitted candidacies for mayor of Skopje to the Election Commission of the City of Skopje by midnight, 15 February. A total of 17 lists of candidates for councillors were also submitted.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski stated in the interview for Sitel TV on Saturday that Macedonia wants a compromise in the name dispute, but that such readiness cannot be sensed in Athens’s positions. “Their positions and remarks to the last proposal presented in October were that the identity, the name of the language, the name of the nation, the Constitution, and the passports should be changed and that we should use the name ‘former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ everywhere, in our bilateral and multilateral relations, inside and outside the country. This is their position, and it is difficult to sense a compromise or will for compromise in their position,” Prime Minister Gruevski stressed, among other things.

Important thing to NATO is that upcoming elections in Macedonia are fair and democratic, even though this is not condition for Macedonia’s accession to NATO. This was stressed at Thursday’s meeting among Defense Minister Konjanovski, Foreign Minister Milososki, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and NATO ambassadors in Brussels. Macedonia remains dedicated to NATO integration and talks on name dispute, Foreign Minister Milososki states following meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

No new proposal for resolution of the name dispute was presented at Wednesday’s meeting between Macedonian representative Zoran Jolevski, Greek representative Adamantios Vassilakis, and UN mediator Matthew Nimetz in New York. Both the Macedonian and Greek representatives agreed that a new meeting should be held. UN mediator Nimetz stressed the need for a positive atmosphere to be created and he urged both sides to avoid making decisions that irritate the other side. He added that the elections in Macedonia and Greece are an objective obstacle to progress in these talks.

How can we explain to the Macedonian citizens that their accession to the European Union – the home of various identities – will cost them their freedom to say who and what they are, that is, that it will cost them their identity? This was the question asked by Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, this weekend. Gruevski called on the EU member states to abide by their principles of respect for the different identities.

This year will be a year of liberalization of the visa regime for Macedonia; but realistically, we cannot expect visas to be cancelled before November, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU Integration Ivica Bocevski said at a briefing with journalists. This is a different position to the one promoted by Assembly Chairman Trajko Veljanoski’s Cabinet on Wednesday, that the visas would be cancelled at the beginning of July if the elections are held without any incidents and that the date for start of the negotiations for membership would be set in October.

- Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at the prayer breakfast in the US met US Vice President Joe Biden and Foreign Minister Hilary Clinton. He also met a few congressmen and senators, including John Turner, chairman of the committee for foreign affairs at the House of Representatives and president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

 

Macedonia’s European story should be speeded up after the state holds fair and democratic elections, as befits an EU candidate country. This was the message conveyed to Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU Integration Ivica Bocevski by the Council of Europe and the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

•Prime Minister Gruevski, who is on visit to United States of America, will attend today’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

Seven candidates – four Macedonians and three Albanians – succeeded in collecting the necessary 10,000 signatures for their presidential candidacies and thus entered the race for president of Macedonia. Professor Gjorgji Ivanov will represent the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE; Professor Ljubomir Frckoski will represent opposition party SDSM; diplomat Nano Ruzin will represent LDP; while Ljube Boskoski will run as independent candidate. Former Health Minister Imer Selmani will be New Democracy’s presidential candidate; Mirushe Hoxha will represent PDSH; while BDI nominated Agron Buxhaku.

The Republic of Macedonia and the Russian Federation marked 15 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations on Monday. Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki and Russian Ambassador to Macedonia Vladimir Solocinskij stressed at the special ceremony held on this occasion that Macedonia and Russia have good and friendly relations, but that the economic relations between the two countries need to be intensified. Ambassador Solocinskij stressed that the spiritual bond and cultural similarity of the two peoples contributed toward strengthening of the traditionally good relations between Macedonia and Russia. On behalf of the Macedonian Government, Foreign Minister Milososki congratulated the Russian citizens on the entronization of the new Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Kirill, and he expressed hope that this will further strengthen the relations between the Macedonian and Russian Orthodox Churches.

A1, Kanal 5, Alsat, Sitel, and Tetovo TV house Art will be charged with misdemeanor for presenting presidential candidates before the start of the election campaign, Broadcasting Council Chairman Zoran Stefanovski informed on Sunday. These TV houses will be fined between 3,000 and 5,000 euros for breaching the Election Code and the Book of Regulations on media representation during election campaigns. The managers and the editors-in-chief of these TV houses do not agree with the new regulations on media representation, assessing them as a form of censorship.

Thursday’s assembly session, at which parliamentarians asked government members questions, was marked by accusations about criminal activities, misleading of the public, corruption, and damaging agreements, as well as calls to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to resign. The opposition parties harshly criticized Gruevski and his associates, arguing that the state has been sinking like “Vertigo” ever since this Government came to power.