- The European Commission is to present Wednesday the report on Macedonia’s progress and the initial information will be presented at a press-conference at 14:30.

The name issue has to be resolved without any further delay. This, according to the Balkan Service of Radio Free Europe, which claims to have an insight into the EC progress report on Macedonia to be issued Wednesday, will be stated in the segment about Macedonia’s headway on its EU integration path, Nova Makedonija reports.

This formulation of the Brussels diplomats when it comes to the name issue is new and reminds of the attitude that NATO established in 2008 following the summit in Bucharest.

“Considering the fact that most NATO member states are also EU member states it is clear that this is a coordinated approach. The effect on the negotiations arises from the power of the two organizations in the international relations. In this particular case, they are clearly on Greece’s side and the pressure is directed toward the weaker party – the one that equally seeks membership of both organizations,” says University Professor Biljana Vankovska.

The second Global Investment Summit which is organized by “Macedonia 2015” in the following two days is to be held in Ohrid. According to announcements, more than 350 participants from several countries are expected to debate on the opportunities for greater economic cooperation.  At the opening of the Summit, an address by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is expected to be delivered, as well as by US Ambassador Paul Wohlers, chairman of the Board of Directors of “Macedonia 2025” Mike Zafirovski and the Summit chairman Zoran Martinovski.  

Introducing media culture will be the new condition that Macedonia will have to meet to be set a date for opening membership negotiations with the EU, MIA reports. The European Commission is going to award Macedonia the fifth recommendation for opening accession talks but is going to mention the adjective ‘Macedonian’ only twice. These are the three main points in the progress report that EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule is going to present on 16 October.

- Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov hosted Sunday a reception at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Statehood and Independence on the occasion of the visit of the honorary consuls to Macedonia. They are to meet Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki Monday to analyze their past achievements and define future priorities.

What if the negotiations between Macedonia and Greece do not yield any results soon? Will Macedonia’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration remain hostage to the long-standing name dispute? Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said in his address at the 68th annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday that after 22 years it is time the UN came up with alternative solutions.

Based on the opinions gathered from connoisseurs of the negotiation process, former ministers of foreign affairs and international law experts, Dnevnik has drawn up five possible alternatives being within the framework of the rules of the United Nations and the Security Council Resolutions. Three of them are quite feasible given that Greece has closed almost all doors to negotiations by avoiding meetings with Macedonian officials and by setting ultimatums and insisting on an erga omnes application of the negotiated name. Terminating all talks under Nimetz’s auspices is not an option either considering that Macedonia does not have the diplomatic power to sell the world the story that it is doing it because it has to and not with the aim of blocking the process or for spite.

1. Application of the Hague Judgment

- PM Nikola Gruevski in his address at the 68th UN General Assembly in New York, stressed that the Macedonian people will never accept to be renamed and added that Greece is unable, with blockades and threats, to change something that has existed for centuries. He urged the UN not to be passive as this shows additional liability and added that the name issue is not based on international law and is not in accordance with the UN acts.

- PM Nikola Gruevski in New York met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and discussed about the intensifying of the talks regarding the name issue. PM Gruevski explained to Ban Ki-moon that Greece avoids the efforts of UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz and rejects the direct meetings and talks. Ban Ki-moon said that he would personally engage himself in intensifying the name talks.

- Greece’s positions have not changed and there is no indication that the country is ready to settle the name dispute, Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said Thursday following his meeting with Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos in New York. He added that there is no confirmation that Greece wishes to become part of the solution.

- At a debate on the international law, organized within the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, the Macedonian delegation cited a non-implementation of the ruling of the International Court of Justice on Greece’s breaching of the Interim Accord. Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said that thus far, the UN has not succeeded to enforce this verdict, which may contribute to settling the name dispute between the two countries and unblock Macedonia's road to the EU, NATO membership.

- Baroness D’Souza, the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, will pay an official visit to Macedonia on Wednesday upon an invitation of Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski and she is scheduled to meet with Deputy PMs Vladimir Pesevski, Fatmir Besimi, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska as well as SDSM leader Zoran Zaev and officials of the civil society.

- Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki, who is part of the Macedonian Delegation led by PM Nikola Gruevski, will take part in the general debate of the 68th session of UN’s General Assembly on 23-28 September in New York. Poposki is also expected to hold several bilateral meetings at the UN headquarters in New York.

The Macedonian Government adopted the 2014 draft budget and the 2013 budget rebalance and will provide them to Parliament for approval Friday.

Zoran Stavreski, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, explained this was a mini rebalance under which 1.34 billion denars would reallocated to the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund and 430 million denars to the Ministry of Education. As for the budget 2014, he said it would be by 7 percent higher from last year’s, totaling 176.5 billion denars, where revenues total 158.2 billion denars and the budget deficit to be funded by home and foreign sources stands at 3.5 percent.

The construction of two new highways, the legal regulation of liabilities between companies and the start of Macedonia’s gasification – projects that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski announced for next year – are going to have a positive effect on the business climate, businessmen say.

Zlatko Kalenikov, President of the Macedonian Chambers of Commerce, says that he has heard from the prime minister good news about the four most important things in business – gasification, infrastructure, fiscal discipline, and salaries and pensions.

“The most important thing to us is starting the gasification project because that would halve the costs of production companies. If it truly begins, the gasification will be the most positive thing in 2014. Home building firms will be contracted for the construction of roads, whereby this industry will be stimulated. Once the government settled its outstanding liabilities to companies, settling debts among companies themselves has now left to be done and this is very important considering everybody waits for the other to repay its debts so they, too, can settle their debts to a third party,” Kalenikov said.

- NATO’s North Atlantic Council adopted Wednesday a progress report on Macedonia in view of its political, economic and defense reforms as part of the 14th cycle of the Membership Action Plan. Macedonian Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, Nikola Poposki and Talat Xhaferi, attended the meeting, at which it was concluded that Macedonia has met all the political and security condition to become the 29th NATO member but it cannot join the Alliance due to the long-standing name dispute.

- Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki met Tuesday with Finland’s Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, who, at the press-conference, said that Finland has always openly supported the EU enlargement and it is prepared for the fifth year in a row to back the recommendation on opening accession negotiations with the Republic of Macedonia. With regard to possible assistance in solving the name row with Greece, the Finnish diplomat said that “it is always better the parties to find a solution on their own because no one benefits from the fact that the issue is unresolved.”

In a massive operation that is still in progress, the Ministry of Interior took into custody Monday 17 suspects in a case of espionage, blackmail, deceit and criminal association, the first of its kind ever in Macedonia and the whole region of the Western Balkans, Nova Makedonija reports. Well known names of the show business, police officers, intelligence agents, employees of the Ministry of Defense, a senior parliamentary official and former chiefs of important state institutions were arrested in the police operation in Skopje Monday morning. They are all suspected of having sold confidential state information to foreign secret services. What are the foreign secret services is yet to be revealed.

“Police took into custody 17 out of 22 suspects. Some of them are abroad as two of them are already in jail for other crimes. They will be brought before the investigative judge within 24 hours,” said Ivo Kotevski, spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Seventeen parliamentary political parties, except for PDSH and the Liberal Party, signed in Parliament Monday the memorandum on meeting the strategic goal of the Republic of Macedonia of European Union membership.  

The parties undertook to carry out continuously and without delay, within the framework of the institutions, all activities and decisions for reforms required in meeting the European Union membership criteria and especially those that pertain to freedom of media and expression, free and fair elections, rule of law and independence of the judiciary, and fighting crime and corruption.

- President Gjorgje Ivanov will take part at the 5. Regional Presidential Summit in Durres, Albania 16-17 September. Ivanov will attend Monday the formal dinner hosted by Albanian President Bujar Nishani while on Tuesday he is to deliver and address and hold bilateral meetings with regional counterparts.

The factual situation in the negotiations is that there is no solution, that the differences between the two parties are profound and that bringing the two positions closer together is hardly likely any time soon, home and Greek analysts say. The difference in relation to the previous round of negotiations is that this time round there are profound differences over mediator Nimetz’s concrete proposal and that he dared speak openly about the Greek government’s positions.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said Thursday that while there was consent that the word ‘Macedonia’ should be included in the solution, there was still no rapprochement of the positions.

“What Mr. Nimetz said is a reality and we expect Greece to stick to the framework within which the negotiations are conducted. The other party always sets ultimatums and wants to see only its own demands met disregarding the other party’s demands and needs,” he said without answering whether it was true that the Macedonia authorities accepted that the name should include a geographic qualifier and that the problem now was where to put it.

-    After meeting Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in Skopje Wednesday, mediator Matthew Nimetz said that there were serious differences between Macedonia and Greece regarding various aspects of the possible solution. Greece insists that the compromise name should be for all purposes and that the geographic qualifier should precede ‘Macedonia’ rather than ‘Republic.’ “I believe the name has to contain the word ‘Macedonia’ bearing in mind the country is in the Macedonian region but is not complete Macedonia. Macedonia is a larger territory partitioned 100 years ago, one part of which is in Greece and therefore there has to be a qualifier to make clear distinction. The Macedonian Government has a different view as to the position of the qualifier” he said.

After having heard the positions of the Greek authorities to his latest, April proposal for resolution of the name issue, Matthew Nimetz, the UN mediator in the dispute, arrived in Skopje Tuesday with the same goal.

“I came to hear the stands to my latest ideas for a possible solution to the name issue,” Nimetz said on his arrival, adding he expected a good meeting in Macedonia.

Mr. Nimetz started the working part of his visit Tuesday with a meeting with Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov and is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki on Wednesday.

UN-appointed name issue mediator Matthew Nimetz was informed about the Greek positions to his latest April proposal for resolution of the name issue between Macedonia and Greece at his meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Monday and now, he said, he clearly understands the position of the Greek authorities.

“Minister Evangelos presented to me the general positions in the negotiations, the position of the government, as well as some detailed remarks about the ideas I presented, in terms of which are acceptable and which are not, and what changes can make them acceptable to Greece. Venizelos was very clear. We had a very constructive meeting, because now I have very clearly understood the position of the Greek government,” Nimetz said after the meeting.

Asked whether the authorities in Skopje are going to accept the modifications that Athens wants, he briefly said he should first come to Skopje.

- Mediator Matthew Nimetz confirmed Monday in Athens that he does not bring a new proposal for the name dispute but that he is coming with a mission to check the positions of Skopje and Athens. According to Nimetz, these are very difficult negotiations and the most important thing is for every side to understand the positions of the other side. On Wednesday, Nimetz is to pay a visit to Skopje to meet with the Macedonian state leadership.

- Croatia is to protect the consensus at the EU Summit in December and meanwhile it will wait for the political agreement between Macedonia and Greece, said Croatian President Ivo Josipovic at the meeting with Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov. Josipovic said that his country is monitoring the efforts that Macedonia is making to meet all criteria for EU and NATO membership but on the other hand stressed that Croatia is also nourishing excellent relations with Greece. President Ivanov, ahead of Nimetz’s visit, stated that Macedonia is always prepared for talks with the mediator.

Name issue mediator Matthew Nimetz is going to pay a visit to Macedonia and Greece next week, the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy, confirmed.

According to unconfirmed information, Nimetz is first going to visit Athens and then Skopje.

The name issue talks intensified at the onset of 2013. In early January, mediator Nimetz visited both Macedonia and Greece and for the first time in 20 years saw an opportunity for resolution of the dispute. Later that month, he also met the negotiators of Macedonia and Greece, Zoran Jolevski and Adamantios Vassilakis, in New York.

- President of the Republic of Croatia Ivo Josipovic on Wednesday and Thursday is to pay an official visit to Macedonia. According to announcements, Josipovic is to meet with the state leadership but also with representatives of the Croatian community in Macedonia.

- PM Nikola Gruevski sent a letter to EU Commissioner Stefan Fule in which he informs Fule about the outcome of the talks held in the inquiry commission involving the events of 24 December. Gruevski informed Fule in details about all aspects of the report and stressed that VMRO-DPMNE stands behind the implementation of the recommendations. Gruevski believes that these efforts will be fairly recognized by the upcoming European Commission's report on Macedonia's progress and result in setting a date for launching of the country’s accession talks in the near future.

-    BDI leader Ali Ahmeti, Deputy Prime Minister Musa Xhaferi and Artan Grubi, Ahmeti’s Chief of Staff, are scheduled to meet Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens Monday. BDI informed this meeting was a follow-up to the intensive campaign they have launched regarding Macedonia’s integration into the EU and NATO.

- Ilija Dimovski from VMRO-DPMNE is to chair the working group which is tasked with realizing the recommendations of the ad-hoc commission in the Parliament. Except for him, Blagorodna Dulic from VMRO-DPMNE, Cvetanka Ivanova and Igor Ivanovski from SDSM and Nexhati Jakupi from BDI are part of the group. PDSH will not take part in the working group as it considers that the events of 24 December were imposed.  Nevertheless, there are no deadlines for realizing the recommendations but the parties agreed to start working as soon as possible.