The Republic of Macedonia will preside over the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers as of 11 May 2010 under the name “Macedonian Chairmanship 2010”. This was accepted by Secretary General of the European Council Thorbjørn Jagland who met with Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki in Skopje, Monday.
“The main priorities of our chairmanship will be the rule of law, raising the level of instruments for implementation of decisions of the Court of Human Rights,” stated Foreign Minister Milososki, Monday.  

Macedonia is united in its grief over the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and the 96-member delegation. Macedonian citizens were paying their respects to those who perished in the plane crash lighting candles and laying flowers outside the Polish Embassy in Skopje over the weekend. The state leadership also signed the book of condolence at the Embassy.

Expressing condolences to the Polish people and the families of those who died in the plane crash near Smolensk, in Russia, President Gjorge Ivanov said: “In these difficult moments for our friends, I told the Polish ambassador that just as Poland had always expressed heartfelt support in all the difficult moments for the people of Macedonia, so its people may count on our unconditional backing now and in the future.”

On the occasion of the plane crash killing the entire Polish delegation and members of the crew, condolences were also expressed by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski who wrote to his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk: “You lost the father of the nation and Macedonia lost an honest and good friend”.

On Saturday night, Macedonian high ranking government officials attended the mass in the Catholic Church in Skopje in honor of the plane crash in Smolensk, which claimed the lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders. Karol Bahura, ambassador of Poland to the Republic of Macedonia made a speech at the mass. A book of condolences was opened Sunday at Poland's Embassy in Skopje.

 

The proposals for constitutional changes through which Ali Ahmeti from BDI and Imer Selmani from Demokraci e Re called Thursday for introduction of the Badinter principle in a number of segments of the justice system and in passing the budget brought the leaders of VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, Nikola Gruevski and Branko Crvenkovski, closer together.

The two leaders said after the leaders’ meeting Thursday that these proposals had nothing to do with the Framework Agreement and therefore they could not accept them. Nova Makedonija comments that this has reduced to minimum the chances for changing the Constitution in line with VMRO-DPMNE’s proposal as regards the composition and term of office of the Judicial Council.

Everybody with their own proposals and demands. This is how the chairmen of the four political parties are going to participate in the leaders’ meeting Thursday, at which the discussion regarding the constitutional changes is expected to resume.

In the run-up to the new round of talks over the name issue between Macedonia and Greece, the Swedish Radio said that the 19-year-old dispute may be on its way of being resolved. According to the radio, an agreement between “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and Greece is in sight. EU Ambassador Erwan Fouere, too, says he expects the process of talks to speed up following the April meeting.

The name issue is the only obstacle to Macedonia’s membership of NATO and opening accession talks with the European Union.

 

The reform at the European Court for Human Rights, multiculturalism in Europe, and minority rights are some of the key issues that Macedonia is going to table during its 6-month presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Following the recent political consultations in Paris, attended also by Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Antonio Milososki, Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says, “Macedonia is ready for the presidency, although there still some details left to be sorted out.”

At their 42nd international conference in Bled, writers from 21 countries adopted a declaration confirming Macedonia’s right to use its constitutional name. The writers also sent letters to the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the President and Prime Minister of Greece, Karolos Papoulias and George Papandreou, in which it is said that the people have the right to call themselves and their country as they wish. This declaration will be published in the bulletin of the World Pen Center in London and will then be provided to all pen centers in the world.

The Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) adopted the new strategy for Macedonia which confirms the devotion of the Bank in the further support of Macedonian economy and establishes the priority activities for the next three years. The new strategy stresses the progress achieved in structural reforms of Macedonia and the key challenges for the upcoming period are established. In the course of the next years, EBRD will focus its support on improving Macedonia’s real economy in order to increase the competitiveness, energy efficiency and promotion of export diversification. 

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said Tuesday that by expressing regret, Greek Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou apologized to Macedonians for the insults at the military parade organized on the occasion of the Greek national day.

“Yesterday I saw that as a representative of Greece she expressed regret for what happened. In diplomacy that is a kind of apology,” the prime minister said.

- Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said Tuesday the Government was focused on finding a solution to the name issue to unblock the Euro-integration and be set a date for starting accession talks during the Spanish Presidency.

 

Greece condemned the scandalous events from the army parade organized in Athens on the occasion of the Greek independence day and expressed regret but did not apologize to the Macedonian citizens for the insults chanted by some of the participants in the parade. Greek Ambassador to Macedonia Alexandra Papadopoulou appealed Monday that the incident be not blown out of proportions and be not used for political and other pursuits, because it helped no one.

Macedonian Foreign Ministry calls in Greek Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou for talks on Monday due to anti-Macedonian chants at the military parade in Athens. At the meeting with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zoran Petrov, Papadopoulou will be presented with a protest note and formal apology will be asked, confirmed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Government spokesperson Martin Martinovski said that the manifestation of hate speech does not contribute in building good-neighborly relations. On Friday, during a march, Greek soldiers chanted "They are Skopians, they are Albanians, we will make new clothes out of their skins”.

After Prime Minister Gruevski’s meeting with his Greek counterpart Papandreou in Brussels, Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said the positions of Macedonia and Greece remained mostly different. “It’s good that in meetings like this we have the chance to discuss the positions and the entire problem. I believe these discussions and dialogues can considerably contribute to better understanding, better atmosphere and possibly certain progress,” Minister Milososki said.  The meeting between the prime ministers lasted only 25 minutes considering Papandreou’s talks regarding Greece’s financial crisis.

 

PM Nikola Gruevski met Wednesday with President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels. Gruevski demanded the EU to get more actively involved in solving the name issue between Macedonia and Greece. Gruevski also met with President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek who praised Macedonia on the implemented reforms from the European agenda.

PM Nikola Gruevski met with European Commissioner Stefan Fule. Fule praised Macedonia for coming out of recession, the good interethnic relations and the implementation of the Framework Agreement. On Thursday, a meeting Gruevski-Papandreou is announced.

On Wednesday and Thursday, PM Nikola Gruevski will stay in an official visit to Brussels. As announced, Gruevski is to meet with president of the European Council Herman van Rompuy and president of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek. On Thursday, Gruevski is scheduled to meet Greek PM George Papandreou.

The Skopje-based Office of the European Union provided to the Macedonian Government new guidelines that should propel the process of reforms in Macedonia before opening accession talks, EU Ambassador Erwan Fouere’s Office confirmed Monday in response to the allegations of former Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, and now member of LDP, Ivica Bocevski, that the Government has been hiding for months the European Commission’s new benchmarks. Mr. Fouere’s Office said those were not new benchmarks but merely verbal remarks concerning the areas in which, according to Brussels’ assessments, the Government lags behind.

MEP Jelko Kacin will request of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and EU Commissioner Stefan Fule in an attempt to settle the issue and start negotiations with the EU. Kacin says that Macedonia should get set with a date for accession talks at the same time as Iceland.

PM Nikola Gruevski will meet with his Greek counterpart George Papandreou in Brussels on Thursday 25 March. Gruevski did not want to comment the projected outcome of this meeting which is the third meeting in the last six months.

 

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said at Brdo near Kranj in Slovenia Macedonia was interested in resolving the name issue much more than Greece. He explained that the solution should not create new major problems that may aggravate the overall atmosphere. Gruevski added that Macedonia was aware that Greece was in a better situation, because of its EU and NATO membership. However, in his view, this does not mean that the resolution of the dispute should not be acceptable to both nations.

Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor gave Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski a Croatian translation of the EU acquis.

Macedonia’s presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is going to test Greece’s readiness to agree to the use of the word “Macedonian” in international organizations, say the Macedonian representatives to the Council of Europe. In their view, the bodies of the Council of Europe have criticized Greece harshly on several occasions so far about its attitude to Macedonia and therefore they expect support with regard to issues concerning Macedonia.

“This opportunity is afforded once in 23 years and it should be taken to lobby for a better position among the member states of Europe’s oldest organization,” the representatives say.

 

Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Milososki took part Thursday in Paris at the meeting of the Committee of Ministers' Bureau and the Presidential Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE).

Milososki met with Jean-David Levitte, political advisor to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Milososki pointed out that Macedonia Macedonia wants an equal opportunity for proactive inclusion in settling the bilateral name dispute with Greece.

Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Milososki will take part Thursday in Paris at the meeting of the Committee of Ministers' Bureau and the Presidential Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) at which details on Macedonia’s taking over of the European Council’s chairmanship will be agreed on. 

The State Statistical Office is intensively preparing to conduct a census of Macedonia’s population in April, 2011. According to Blagica Novkovska, director of the State Statistical Office, the census is part of project for technical aid that will cost 1, 8 billion euros and will have to be realized in the following 24 months.

Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, Commander of NATO Joint Force Command Naples met with PM Gruevski Wednesday and discussed the relations between Macedonia and the Alliance. Gruevski stressed that our aim continues to be our full-fledged membership in the Alliance and both officials emphasized the big contribution of Macedonia’s army in NATO peace missions.

9 June is the latest date when the Republic of Macedonia should reply to Greece’s counterarguments regarding Macedonia’s lawsuit in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. The court, as written on its web page, will then give Greece a time-limit to 28 October to respond to Macedonia’s new arguments. The Court accepted Macedonia’s request for giving four additional months to review Greece’s response in the first phase of the procedure. 

 

Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, Commander of NATO Joint Force Command Naples is in a two day visit to Macedonia. Admiral Fitzgerald met Tuesday with Defense Minister Zoran Konjanovski and Chief of General Staff of ARM Lieutenant General Miroslav Stojanovski and assessed that Macedonian troops are well-trained and ready to participate in any mission.
On Wednesday, Admiral Fitzgerald will visit army field Krivolak and later in the day he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in Skopje.

The Greek Embassy in Berlin asked German supermarkets to withdraw from sale the Macedonian wine, saying that only Greece could geographically use the name of Macedonia to indicate the origin of its wine.

A letter from the Greek Ambassador for Economy and Trade to Germany Alexander Mitrogos to Manfred Rot, director of the company of Nurnberg that sells wine from the Republic of Macedonia with the indication “Macedonian” within the chain of supermarkets EDEKA, reveals the Greek position to the name issue with Macedonia, Nova Makedonija comments Tuesday.

- The Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia to Pristina was opened Monday. Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiu attended the ceremony, while Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki emphasized that he is particularly proud about the good relations between both countries.

The permanent commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (whose decisions bear the same relevance as those taken in the plenary sessions) adopted with an overwhelming majority Latvian MEP Boris Tsilevich’s report entitled “Protection of National Minorities: Good Practices and Flaws in Implementing Common Norms”.