Macedonia

Ahead of the EU Council of Ministers discussion on Macedonia’s blocked EU bid, Athens sends a message dampening Skopje’s hopes of opening EU accession talks prior to the resolution of the ‘name’ dispute.The Greek Foreign Ministry said that the condition for lifting its blockade to Macedonia’s EU membership remains the …

Burning Macedonian flags in Albania, and pelting the Macedonian Prime Minister’s car, were unacceptable incidents, the Presidents of Macedonia and Albania agreed in Montenegro.Macedonia’s President, Gjorge Ivanov, and his Albanian counterpart, Bujar Nishani, met on Wednesday at the sidelines of the fourth regional presidential summit under the working title, “Cooperation …

Skopje had agreed to the three terms that Sofia has set as preconditions for Bulgaria’s support for Macedonia’s EU integration process.In a letter sent on Tuesday, Macedonia’s Foreign Minister, Nikola Poposki, wrote to tell his Bulgarian counterpart, Nikolay Mladenov, that the proposals contained in Mladenov’s earlier letter were acceptable. They …

Macedonian doctors staging a two-week-long strike say they will take more radical steps if Health Minister Nikola Todorov acts on threats to punish them.The Independent Trade Union of Medical Clinics, which is heading the strike by medics, on Tuesday said they will erect tents in front of the Health Ministry, …

Following a RECOM round table in Skopje, the Macedonian President, Gjorge Ivanov, met the team of regional REKOM advocates.REKOM advocates from Macedonia, Biljana Vankovska, from Bosnia, Zdravko Grebo, and from Serbia, Natasa Kandic met with Ivanov on Sunday.

Berlin think tank launches upgraded initiative to solve the dispute between Macedonia and Greece so that the former can advance its EU integration.The lead analyst of the European Stability Initiative, Gerald Knaus, said the solution would foresee a change to Macedonia’s name that would come into force permanently on the …

Many Macedonians hope that Johan Tarculovski, the only Macedonian national convicted for war crimes by the Hague Tribunal, could soon be released following the recent acquittals of Kosovo’s Ramush Haradinaj and Croatia’s Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac.“Free Johan immediately!”, “Only our Johan remains to rot in jail”, and “End the …

Albanians will one day live in united state, as that is God’s will, the head of Macedonia’s Islamic Religious Community, IVZ, Sulejman Rexhepi, has told an interviewer.Macedonian leaders have condemned the the country’s leading Muslim cleric for calling for a pan-Albanian state. Speaking to an Albanian-language newspaper, Zhurnal Plus, Rexhepi …

The lustration process is being conducted contrary to Constitutional Court rulings and is violating human rights, a round table in Skopje organized by the Open Society-Macedonia foundation heard.“Lustration is hampering human rights and undermining [Macedonia’s] security system” by exposing an informants’ network, Vladimir Pivovoarov, a law professor at FON University, …

Macedonia initialled a Chinese loan that will be used to build more motorway stretches, the Transport Minister said at Tuesday’s signing ceremony.“The agreement gives priority to infrastructure projects like road and railway networks, bridges, energy and telecommunications facilities… [and] encourages cooperation among banks and companies from both countries”, Macedonian Transport …