The wiretapping needs to be resolved by those who are, in legal terms, in charge. If necessary, a parliamentary committee should also be set up to investigate this issue but this depends on the presence of all political parties in parliament, said Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, in his Sunday interview with Radio Free Europe.

“Well, this is something very serious, and once again, my recommendation is that things are clarified and investigated by those people who are in legal terms, in charge for such a procedure. If necessary, there should also be, as in many countries, a political assessment committee in the parliament to investigate this issue, but this depends that all parties are in Parliament. This is another good reason why it makes sense that political parties are in parliament and the debate takes place in the parliament.

“I think this is a must, it’s part of the maturity of democracy to have a dialogue and open channels for discussion. Of course, nobody demands that everybody agree on everything, but, once again, in a developed democracy there must be a culture of finding compromises,” Commissioner Hahn said.

- Friday in Skopje, expert teams from Macedonia and Bulgaria will hold a new round of negotiations for the Agreement on good-neighboring, after a long time. Diplomatic sources stress that the new Bulgarian work group is expected to have a more positive approach towards negotiations and text writings regarding the stand of the new Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

Opposition MPs returning to parliament, setting up an inquiry committee, unblocking dialogue between the government and the opposition with the aid of right- and left-wing Members of the European Parliament by the model of resolving the political crisis in Albania, and conducting a thorough investigation of the wiretapping allegations, that is, complete shedding of light on the latest developments by Macedonian institutions are some of the models that, according to party sources, Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, discussed with government and opposition leaders in Skopje on Tuesday.  

Commissioner Hahn himself confirmed Wednesday he insisted that the Social Democrats should return to parliament so the affair could be “resolved in a parliamentary style”.

He said in his press release that the affair needs to be closed in a parliamentary style via rule of law because of the country’s European perspective. This is a truly serious issue. My recommendation is that matters should be cleared up and investigated by the relevant authorities, in a legal procedure, and, if necessary, as in other countries.

- President Gjorge Ivanov Wednesday met with Ivica Dacic Serbian Foreign Minister and Chair of OSCE who stayed an official visit in Macedonia. From Ivanov’s Cabinet said that Ivanov stressed that Macedonia deeply appreciates the role of OSCE and the support it gets in several spheres.
The issue of stability in the region and in Macedonia is of great importance for OSCE and all the disposable capacities should be used in order to solve the situation, stressed Dacic on the press conference with the Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki. Poposki welcomed the fact that the regional collaboration is high on the agenda of the Serbian Chairmanship with OSCE.

- EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn met in Skopje with the highest state authorities. He commented that in a democratic society the debate is in Parliament. As Hahn previously announced, the European Parliament and the European Commission place at disposal all resources in order to end the political crisis in Macedonia.

- The second joint session of Macedonia and Serbia was held in Skopje chaired by Prime Ministers Nikola Gruevski and Aleksandar Vucic respectively, who signed seven bilateral agreements for collaboration. According to Prime Minister Gruevski, the mutual conclusion is that in order to establish better economic connection they need to realize concrete projects, and Serbian Prime Minister Vucic considers they will “learn and acknowledge from the developments in Macedonia”.

- President Gjorge Ivanov Sunday met in Zagreb with the newly elected Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and expressed the readiness for further strengthening of the traditional relations between the two countries. Ivanov participated in the inauguration of the Croatian President together with Defense Minister Zoran Jolevski.

- Newly appointed American Ambassador to Macedonia Jess Baily Thursday presented his credentials to President Gjorge Ivanov. Ambassador Baily was also welcomed by Foreign Minister and Chief of Diplomacy Nikola Poposki and discussed the sound relations between the two countries.

- British IT Company “Endava” Wednesday opened new offices in Skopje. The software developing company last year announced an investment of over 2 million euros and 450 new employments. According to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Macedonia is famous for fast-growing markets in the ICT sector in this part of Europe, so it was crucial for us “Endava” to expand their manufacturing plant here.

-    Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski had a brief telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday, wishing him success in dealing with the challenges his country faces. He also said both countries should make effort to improve bilateral relations, resolve open issues and build a constructive atmosphere for cooperation in all areas of common interest.

Over 20,000 Macedonian citizens, according to the opposition, were wiretapped over the past several years. At a press conference Monday, the opposition aired a few recordings of tapped telephone conversations, including between SDSM leader Zoran Zaev and his deputy Radmila Sekerinska, Zaev and his young daughter, Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski and Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, and BDI leader Ali Ahmeti and associates.

These recordings, Zaev said, were only a small part of the vast material they had and which they intended to disclose over the period ahead.

Zaev informed that government and VMRO-DPMNE officials, opposition leaders, NGO activists, journalists, businessmen, top academics, religious leaders and members of the judiciary, except Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Saso Mijalkov, Director of the Security and Counter-intelligence Office (DBK), were eavesdropped on for years. He himself, Zaev alleged, had been wiretapped for at least four years even though the longest period during which a person can be eavesdropped upon with a judge's consent is 14 months.

Two more people from Skopje and Veles were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of involvement in the Putsch case. One of them is an employee of the Interior Ministry and the other is a former employee of the Interior Ministry who was fired in 2013. They were both employed at the Ministry in the early 1990s.

"They both collaborated with a foreign service taking activities and steps for which they were abundantly rewarded. The initial examination has revealed that their assets have expanded disproportionately by hundreds of thousands of euros and shares. They are charged with espionage and violence against high-ranking state officials," said Interior Ministry Spokesperson Ivo Kotevski.

In the raid at five locations police seized five laptops, three desktop computers, 19 mobile phones, 100 CDs and DVDs, 110 video and audio cassettes 14 floppy disks, 17 hard disks and 9 savings deposit books.

- One of the most important conclusions of this year’s Munich Conference is that this year was filled with challenges, crisis, extremism, terrorist attacks which makes 2015 a year to tackle these problems, stressed Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki who together with President Gjorge Ivanov attended the 51st Munich Security Conference. Minister Poposki met with US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and discussed the Euro-Atlantic agenda.

The statement of the Public Prosecution concerning the leaked video of a meeting between the leaders of VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM induced various reactions. On Tuesday, the Prosecution said they would investigate the circumstances under which the video went public.

They also stated that publishing material that may later become a subject of a court procedure is forbidden and punishable by law.

"Therefore, we warn that the publication of such material should stop immediately," the Prosecution said.

- Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office Tuesday evening announced that it will perform investigation on the facts and circumstances on how the materials from the meeting between Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and SDSM leader Zoran Zaev were leaked to the media. Public Prosecutor’s Office stressed that publication of materials, which might become subject of criminal procedure, is forbidden and punishable.

SDSM said they would press charges against Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski for unauthorized recording and tapping after a video appeared on You Tube a couple of days ago, which was later aired by televisions channels and reposted by online media outlets, showing opposition leader Zaev confirming at a meeting with the prime minister he had comprising material obtained from a foreign spy service.

At a press conference Tuesday, SDSM spokesperson Petre Silegov invoked Articles 151 and 152 of the Criminal Code, according to which unauthorized tapping and recording is not allowed and therefore the prime minister should be held accountable.

"If there were any special investigation measures in place, a criminal offence was committed under Articles 360 and 360a of the Criminal Code—leaking of confidential information. Now it is the Public Prosecution's turn to act. Let us see what they will do now," Silegov said.

Governing VMRO-DPMNE called on the relevant authorities to find out who made the video of Gruevski's meeting with Zaev, who published it and whether its publication was lawful.

The European Union expressed serious concern Monday over the political situation in Macedonia in its second press release in a couple of days.

Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for the EU High Representatives for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, said the EU is concerned about “the way in which events over the weekend were handled and the lack of balanced media coverage” of those events.

"I am sure you know that our concern over the increased politicization and perception of selective justice is also expressed in the regular report of the European Commission published at the close of last year," she said.  

- SDSM leader Zoran Zaev met EU Ambassador Aivo Orav on Monday. Zaev informed Orav on the latest developments and stressed that his legitimate demand for a caretaker government that would provide conditions for holding fair and democratic elections could not be regarded as blackmail and an attempt at staging a coup d'etat.

The Interior Ministry charged Zoran Zaev, leader of the Social Democrats (SDSM), with plotting a coup and threatening Macedonia's constitutional order. At several meetings he held with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski from September to November 2014, Zaev said he had compromising information concerning high-ranking Macedonian officials that he threatened to disclose unless Prime Minister Gruevski accepted the opposition demand for a caretaker government that would eventually lead to early parliamentary elections.

Sonja Verusevska and Branko Palifrov, two of the four suspects in the Coup police operation, will have to spend 30 days in detention. Zoran Verusevski, former director of the Security and Counter-intelligence Office (DBK), has already been detained on other charges, while Zaev was ordered Saturday to turn in his passport and is obliged to report with the court once a week.

According to the Interior Ministry, these four persons conspired to topple the government and extort various services through the use of illegal means of following, spying on and threatening high-ranking officials.

- Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov Sunday met with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev in Sofia and discussed the current situation between the two countries as well as the Euro-integrational collaboration. Ivanov also attended the funeral of former Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev while in Sofia.

- Candice Miller, U.S. Representative of Michigan’s congressional district, two days ago submitted a resolution supporting USA for the Macedonian membership in NATO. The congresswoman is President of the Congressional Caucus on Macedonia and Macedonian-Americans and this is a second resolution she has submitted to Congress.

The participation of the nationalist party Independent Greeks in the new Greek government may not be crucial in defining the foreign policy of Alexis Tsipras' cabinet, yet Macedonia will most certainly be the last country that its leader Panos Kammenos will visit as minister of defense, Dnevnik comments.

Kammenos will very soon have an opportunity to speak his mind on Macedonia's issue, be it at a ministerial NATO meeting, an ISAF conference or a gathering discussing ways to fight ISIS. Nobody is forecasting for now what positions he would present, yet bearing in mind his earlier statements, analysts trust nothing he says will be a surprise.

Only few days prior to the elections, Kammenos stated that Greece cannot let go of its national interests, sovereignty, territorial integrity and truth "as against those promoting territorial claims against Greece, such as Skopje, for instance".

"Skopje has to understand that its use of the word 'Macedonia' was but a figment of the imagination of some people from the time of the Cold War. At the leader's meeting chaired by Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greece decided not to let anyone use the name of Macedonia and this decision cannot be altered without convening a council of political party leaders," he said before the poll.

- A moment of silence was given for the toll Jews from Macedonia, the Diplomatic Corps, scientists and other guests paid tribute during the Scientific Conference in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki stressed that we shouldn’t forget the millions of victims and we must draw moral so that such events never repeat again.

- Macedonia and Albania will improve the economic collaboration, already having good-neighborly and sound political relations. Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki Monday in Tirana presented his readiness to his Albanian colleague Ditmir Bushati to join efforts to establish and adopt the European standards in every field, especially regarding the ethnic communities.

- The European Council should find a way Macedonia to start the accession negotiations, is the message President Gjorge Ivanov sent from Krusevo on the traditional diplomatic reception on the occasion of New Year’s and Christmas holidays. In accordance with the established practice, the diplomatic reception is held outside the capital city and this year the diplomats were presented with the economic and cultural characteristics of Krusevo Municipality.

At the end of December 2014, every Macedonian citizen kept in banks 1,655 euros and owed banks 870 euros on average, according to the statistics of the National Bank of Macedonia. At the end of last year all credits that Macedonian banks had approved totaled 4.15 billion euros, some 80 percent of which were in denars and the rest in foreign currencies. 1.7 billion euros of that amount were credits approved to private persons.

The high credit growth that stood at 9 percent at the end of last year is expected to continue this year too. Credit interest rates for private persons, who most frequently take housing and consumer credits, were lower in December 2014 than in January 2014.

However, according to National Bank Governor Dimitar Bogov, the low interest rates are not expected to climb down any further. Households and companies keep deposits in banks and savings banks of 4.6 billion euros, 60 percent of which are in denars and the rest in foreign currencies, mostly euros. Citizens keep 3.3 billion euros in banks as time and sight deposits.

- The European integration of all countries in the region, their mutual collaboration and promotion of common projects is especially important for fulfilling the aspirations for EU membership, assessed Foreign Ministers of Macedonia and Kosovo, Nikola Poposki and Hashim Tachi respectively, after the meeting in Skopje. Tachi stressed that Kosovo attentively follows the developments with the Islamic radicals in Syria and makes efforts to detect them.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said in Skopje Wednesday that Macedonia had a European perspective, yet for that to happen the name issue, which had taken far too long, had to be resolved first.

The opposition has to return to parliament, he said, because that is the place for political dialogue, while the carrying out of all necessary reforms has to continue.

"The name dispute is taking too long and the failure to settle it is harmful to both Europe and the two countries involved. To me it is quite unclear why no progress in regard to the name dispute has been made during this long period of time. The two countries have much more important issues to focus on, primarily issues relating to their economies and reforms.

"Austria is ready to put pressure in order to make the process more dynamic," Minister Kurz said at the press conference he held together with his host, Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki.

- The Chief of the Austrian Diplomacy Sebastian Kurz is optimist that after the elections in Greece the dynamics of the Macedonian European integrations will change, and Austria is already discussing this issue with the partners in the Union announcing personal engagement. The Chief of the Macedonian Diplomacy, Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki stressed the importance of the Austrian investors.

A fierce debate was conducted at the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday after rapporteur Ivo Vajgl presented the draft resolution on Macedonia, in which the EP recommends for the ninth time that the Council should open membership negotiations with the country, MIA reports.

Alojz Peterle, the Chairman of the Macedonia-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, stressed that Vajgl's draft resolution was realistic, constructive, and pro-European, showing good sense for Macedonia's problems.

"The opening of accession talks will propel forward the resolution of the open issues," he said.

Richard Howitt, the former rapporter for Macedonia at the EP, said it was shameful that the EP was the only EU institution trying to resolve the name issue which was being misused for political pursuits.