Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski met with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann in Vienna Monday. They discussed Macedonia’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration and the possibilities for promoting the economic cooperation between the two countries. PM Gruevski stressed on that occasion the problem of the Greek block and the role of the European Council in unblocking this process. Gruevski appealed that Macedonia be set a date for opening membership negotiation without having resolved the name issue considering the European Commission stated for three years in a row that Macedonia carried out reforms and made progress. The idea is for Macedonia to benefit from Austria’s position in resolving the name issue with Greece.

Vienna believes that a substantial part of the pressure of the EU should be put on Athens to make it show more understanding for the resolution of the problem. Austria is arguing for a model of screening without a defined date for negotiations. Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki sent Monday a letter with the same appeal to his counterparts of the EU member states.

At the EU summit in December, Macedonia is going to call for a deadline for setting Macedonia a date for opening membership negotiations, an idea of Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki says that in the run-up to the EU Summit in December, Macedonia is trying to change the approach of the EU applied by Greece – “I block because I can.”  The goal is for the EU to give room for opening perspectives and for opening membership negotiations, whereby, he adds, an additional dynamics would be added and the probability and motivation for seeking out a solution would increase.

- A governmental delegation headed by PM Nikola Gruevski on Monday and Tuesday is to pay a visit to Austria and will meet with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann. The economic potentials of the Republic of Macedonia will be represented during the visit.

Former Greek Prime Minister Papandreou’s statement in Parliament that the verdict in the Hague would be reached in a few days and that “whatever the verdict, the name issue will not be resolved,” is seen as a sign that Macedonia’s southern neighbor is not going to welcome with a smile the ruling of the court to be declared in the first week of December. The fact that Papandreou said for the second time that the incumbent Greek government has a historic chance to resolve the issue should not be underrated either.

Macedonian diplomatic sources say that most important to Macedonia is that it wins the first application demand whereby the court would rule that with its veto in Bucharest Greece violated the Interim Accord between the two countries. The second application demand – recommending Athens that this should not happen in the future – is in the service of getting a positive outcome for the first one, Dnevnik’s sources say. Interestingly enough, according to Greece, if the dispute in the Hague ends in a way that the court accept the first and rejects the second demand, it would be a split verdict. Greek experts say that part of the verdict will be positive for one party and the other part will be positive for the other party. In their view, Athens expects the court to condemn Greece for the veto in Bucharest, although formally that is referred to as a unanimous decision of NATO, but most probably, there will not be any recommendation for Greece not to repeat the same in the future. Greek experts add that in the verd

- Twenty years from the adoption of Macedonia’s first Constitution were marked Thursday. Parliament Spokesman Trajko Veljanoski said the Macedonian Constitution stood the test of time, it is democratic and liberal and provides guarantees for our fellow countrymen - Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Serbians and Roma people living in Macedonia - to enjoy their rights. Some of the people who wrote the Constitution say that the constitution has no need of being altered because it is a guarantee of the presence and future. The first Constitution was adopted 17 November, 1991 with 93 votes “in favour.”

The status quo resulting  from Macedonia’s stalled aspirations to join the EU and NATO is utterly detrimental not only for the country but for the entire region and the enlargement process, the subcommittee for Europe and Eurasia of the Foreign Policy Committee of the US Congress is said to have warned, Nova Makedonija reports.

In the debate focusing on the situation in Balkans, the subcommittee raised concerns that the status quo works in the interest of no one – neither Greece, nor Macedonia and neither Europe nor the USA. Experts assess that this situation works in favor of certain circles, to whom stability of the country and the region is not an interest. There are also those who believe that the status quo benefits most extremist groups, such as hard-line Islamists. According to connoisseurs, not resolving the dispute and impeding Macedonia’s membership of NATO and the EU weakens the South Wing of the Alliance. Experts emphasize that the extremist circles take advantage of the region, weakened by the stalled European integration process, for projecting their own interests.

The Macedonian economy can easily become a collateral damage of the currency war waged in the world and of the weakening of the euro as against the US dollar, businessmen caution. That is particularly true for the firms of the metallurgy complex, the driving force of the home economy contributing significantly to the overall economic growth in Macedonia. A stronger dollar does not suit them at all. A more expensive dollar also means more expensive energy resources as well as an increase in the segment of the Macedonian debt denominated in dollars, Dnevnik comments.

Considering that the denar is tightly pegged to the euro at a rate of 61.5 denars per euro, the Macedonian national currency is following the fate of the others and so when the euro is gaining ground so is the denar and vice versa when the euro gets weaker the same happens to the denar in relation to the dollar, yen and other world currencies.

Macedonia is ready for all possible scenarios that could happen in the euro zone, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski, expounding on the draft budget 2012 before the parliamentary committee on financing and budget. The danger of the crisis spilling over into all European countries is real considering a few more European countries, primarily Greece and Italy, are in big trouble.

“That means that the situation of the European economy at this moment and in a foreseeable future is serious. That requires maximum seriousness and maximum caution by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and the other economic entities in conducting the economic policies,” Minister Stavreski said.

 

President Gjorge Ivanov, who is taking part at the international symposium “Dialogue Among Civilizations,” held in Paris, met with UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and discussed about the future dialogue among civilizations that should be held in Macedonia in 2013.

The International Democratic Union (MDU) is the first international political institution that has changed its own statute to prevent a Greek block of Macedonia. At the meeting in London Friday, MDU voted through a new statute. Apart from Greece, all other countries supported the changing of the statute to abandon the principle of consensus-based decision-taking.

“VMRO-DPMNE has turned from an observer to an associative member, which Greece had long been blocking. This decision was supported with acclamation by all guests, prime ministers and ministers,” VMRO-DPMNE’s press service informed.

Respecting Kosovo’s present borders is the best solution for peace in the region, said Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha after meeting his Macedonian counterpart, Nikola Gruevski, in Skopje Wednesday, Dnevnik reports.

“All statements or messages with suggestions for changing the territorial integrity have been retrieved from the political architecture of Slobodan Milosevic. Albania cannot subscribe to the methodology of new Balkan butchering,” Berisha said.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said “all disputes in the region should be resolved with a dialogue and respecting territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

The picture in the region this year is definitely changing as regards the European integration and it is very important for the Republic of Macedonia not to remain out of a process that is absolutely assuming a regional dimension, said Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Teuta Arifi, pointing out the arguments with which the country is going to lobby in the run-up to the summit of the EU in December, Nova Makedonija reports.

Arifi said the coming month was going to be a month of lobbying and she was going to visit London, Paris, Dublin, Athens and Brussels.

“Being set a date for opening accession talks is crucial and very important for all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and unblocking the Euro-Atlantic integration remains to be a priority issue,” she stressed.

The name issue should be resolved as soon as possible but Greece at the moment is not motivated to enter negotiations for its resolution, says Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki in his interview with Radio Free Europe.

“From the point of view of our strategic commitment, we do not have an alternative. Macedonia belongs to the European and Euro-Atlantic families. That is our goal and we are striving to attain it. I could not discuss the speed considering this problem has taken 20 years. I would say it should be resolved as soon as possible," said Poposki.

The government and the opposition in Greece should reach consensus over what they would do in regard to the verdict in the Hague to be pronounced in a difficult moment for Athens when the state will most probably be ruled by a transitional government. This is how, according to some home analysts, the recent statement of Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou should be seen. He surprised the Greek public by mentioning before the Greek MPs the name issue and the expected verdict in the Hague in a time when the entire home and world public is waiting to see what the Greek Government’s next moves are going to be to financially stabilize the country, thus saving the euro zone, Dnevnik reports.

In his address in Parliament, Papandreou listed the name issue as one of the priorities the new government is going to face.

“We are soon going to receive the decision of the Court in the Hague regarding the name issue. I think the new government will have to take action to deal with the suggestions for resolution of this major issue,” Papandreou said in his address.

A series of measures to improve the economic situation and the standard of living, create new jobs, realize the strategic goals, and promote the favorable business climate and the companies’ positions are some of the achievements of the government in its first one hundred days, according to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

In his video address on facebook Thursday, he stressed that the Government kept all the promises it made for the first one hundred days. The investments of Kemet Electronics, the new facility of Johnson Controls in Stip, the Russian Protekt, the Italian Euroitalia, the Dutch Stil Kon, are some of many that Prime Minister Gruevski highlighted in his address. In his view, Macedonia received the greatest recognition for what it has done from the World Bank, which ranked the country as the world’s third best reformer and put it on the 22nd position by the overall conditions for doing business, ahead of 20 EU member states.

- Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki paid Thursday a visit to Prague where he is to participate at the informal meeting of the countries from the Visegrad Group. This meeting will be used for reaffirmation of the need for Macedonia’s sooner accession into NATO and sooner EU negotiation.

Macedonia has suggested that the recommendation that the European Commission should not leave out the adjective “Macedonian” when referring to the Macedonian language in its future reports should be adopted as a conclusion at the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Macedonia-EU Committee in Skopje Thursday, Dnevnik reports.

The co-Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, Kenan Hasipi, says he has already provided the draft proposals but it is yet to be seen if the Greek MEPs file amendments.

“Most probably we are going to define the proposals earlier so we don’t have to outvote each other. We are going to find a joint formulation before the meeting,” Hasipi says.

 

The Republic of Macedonia has been elected a member of the UNESCO Executive Board for the period between 2011 and 2015. This is recognition of the country's significant contribution to the activities of this organization and the United Nations.

Macedonia should have as many allies in NATO as possible before the next summit of the Alliance in Chicago in April, foreign and home experts say and add that Macedonia should not remain just a silent bystander waiting for the process to get unblocked when the name issue is resolved, Dnevnik reports.

At the summit in Chicago, Afghanistan and the pulling of NATO troops out of the country in 2014 will be the chief talking point. No one says whether the NATO reform or its enlargement would be discussed as well. Hence, home experts say, the question is whether one more summit after that in Lisbon will go without a discussion about Macedonia and its membership. Instead, Macedonia will merely be thanked for its contribution to the peace-keeping missions of the Alliance. US Ambassador to Macedonia Paul Wohlers has made it plain that Macedonia may expect accession to the Alliance at the summit in Chicago provided the name issue with Greece is resolved.

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- Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, who is on a two-day official visit to Croatia, following the meeting with his counterpart Ivo Josipovic, said the omission of the adjective 'Macedonian' in the last European Commission report on Macedonia's progress demonstrated a lack of principles and raises doubt in the sincerity of the EU. President Ivanov asked Josipovic to promote the application of the positive model of overcoming the Croatia-Slovenia dispute in the settlement of Macedonia's bilateral row with Greece. Macedonia and Croatia signed Monday an agreement on extradition of citizens that have committed crime.  

The decision to write off over 50 percent of the Greek debt, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski, is not going to resolve all Greek problems, yet it is a step ahead in overcoming the present situation.

“With this decision, the bankruptcy of Greece and its incapacity to repay debts were in fact made official, which is however better than having the same happening without an agreement. In any case, it will not be a final solution to the situation in Greece and other indebted countries because now the question is raised of what will happen in the event of a similar situation in Italy and Spain, as bigger countries where investors will not be able to accept the writing off of debts or where there is not enough money for recapitalization of banks,” Minister Stavreski said.

Greece is not going to let the Macedonian language be referred to as Macedonian in the EU when Macedonia joins the European Union. This was the response of a few Greek professors and journalists in the survey of Dnevnik to the question of whether Greece would make a problem if the Macedonian language is referred to as such in the institutions and documents of the EU once Macedonia becomes part of the European family. The dilemma was raised when the European Commission avoided a few times in a week the use of the adjective “Macedonian” for naming the Macedonian language. Some experts in Athens say that the dilemma whether Greece agrees that the language be registered as Macedonian in the Union when Macedonian becomes a member state will be closed with a package solution to the name, language and identity, Dnevnik reports.

With regard to certain misinformation or arbitrary and inaccurate interpretations reported by some media in reference to Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki’s meeting with EU Commissioner Stefan Fule, the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday:

“First, at the meeting with EU Commissioner Fule Tuesday, Foreign Minister Poposki raised the issue of the leaving out of the adjective ’Macedonian’ from the latest EC report and it was asked that this approach by the EC be rectified.  Most of the meeting focused on this issue and it was stressed in no uncertain terms that this approach conflicts with the European values the EC should promote.

“Second, you can turn to EU Commissioner Fule’s Office to receive confirmation of this information.

“Third, we ask you to report objectively and truthfully with confirmed information, especially about issues that are extremely important and delicate for the public and the national interests.

The leaving out of the adjective “Macedonian” in this year’s report of the EC is an inherited practice, EU Commissioner Stefan Fule replied to Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki’s remark. With the explanation that Fule gave Poposki at their meeting in Strasbourg Tuesday he reiterated once again the statement he made after the release of the report that this is not about ignoring the adjective “Macedonian” but about an established practice. Poposki told Fule that this practice is unprincipled and that in the previous reports on Macedonia and also on countries of the region the Macedonian identity parameters were unambiguously stated. The minister also added he expected the Commission to be the first to stand up in defense of these values.

Commissioner Fule’s Office said that the EU had not changed its approach to Macedonia’s name and rejected all speculations and accusations of a new approach to the name issue and Macedonia.

The annual report of the European Commission on Macedonia’s progress is the main topic on the agenda of Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki during his visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. According to unofficial information, Poposki is going to call for an explanation of the denial of the Macedonian language in the EC report at his Monday meeting with Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, has not confirmed this information explaining that the “report will be discussed.”

Minister Poposki’s visit is part of Macedonia’s activities with the aim of promoting the dialogue with the European Parliament in the context of the drafting of the Resolution on Macedonia’s progress for 2011, and also as part of the activities for promoting cooperation within the framework of the informal support group in the European Parliament “Friends of Macedonia.”

- The President of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zeljko Komsic, is paying a 2-day official visit to Macedonia. Presidents Ivanov and Komsic agreed that the difficult issues of the past should be closed and that drawing of new lines in the region could be very dangerous. Therefore, leaders of the entire region should be communicating constructively.

Macedonia has been ranked third on the list of 183 countries ranked by the reforms they conducted in the latest Doing Business Report of the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation (IFC).

Macedonia, Morocco and Moldavia are the world’s top three reformers. By how easy it is to do business in the country, Macedonia has climbed up 12 places from the 34th position last year to the 22nd position in 2011. With these results, Macedonia is better than all countries of the region and than 19 EU member states. This year, it is easier to do business in Macedonia than France, Holland, Switzerland, Austria and many other more developed countries.

At the meeting of the Committee on Stabilization and Association in Brussels, the European Commission referred to the Macedonian language as “language of the majority.”  Only a week after avoiding the adjective “Macedonian” when referring to the language in the annual report on the country’s progress, the European Commission has turned again the naming of our language into a problem, Dnevnik reports.

Moreover, Christian Hedberg, Head of Unit for Macedonia at the Directorate for Enlargement of the European Commission, chairing the meeting, referred to the Macedonian government officials as “the Skopian delegation.” The meeting was attended by representatives of the EU member states, including Greece. The Committee is a forum at which Macedonia’s achievements are discussed and guidelines are set for future reforms.

Despite the harsh letters and reactions from Macedonia to the fact that Brussels avoided using the adjective “Macedonian” in its report, the European Commission showed again Wednesday it has a problem naming our language. This time round, it happened at the regular meeting of the Committee on Stabilization and Association, when the minutes of a previously held meeting were supposed to be passed.

- Macedonian government delegation led by PM Nikola Gruevski on Thursday is to take part at the Macedonian-British Business Forum in London at which the opportunities for investing in Macedonia will be presented before British businessmen. PM Nikola Gruevski met Wednesday in London with Jan Fischer, vice president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Gruevski and Fischer discussed about the current projects that are financed by this bank.

The European Commission decided in the last minute to remove some of the positive remarks about Macedonia that should have been written in the report on the country’s progress. The judiciary, the public administration and media are some of the areas in which Brussels, in the last version of the report, gave us more negative formulations than in the preliminary report that Dnevnik found from sources in the European Commission.

The working version of the Brussels report, according to Dnevnik’s sources, was written a few weeks before the release of the official document. If comparing the two versions, it can be noted that some of the positive assessments have been removed as others are reformulated.