Skopje urged to avoid election problems, improve political dialogue

10/11/2008

A new EC report credits Macedonia with progress in key areas but signals concern over irregularities at the polls.

By Goran Trajkov for Southeast European Times in Skopje – 10/11/08

EU Ambassador to Macedonia Ervan Fuere presented the report to the media on November 5th. [Tomislav Georgiev]

The European Commission's (EC) annual report on candidate countries, released last week, highlights Macedonia's progress in overhauling its economy, police and judiciary system. However, it faults the country for election irregularities, lack of political dialogue and a failure to reach consensus on key issues.

Macedonia has shown progress on some of the eight benchmarks set by the EU, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said. "We give you full credit for that. But for us, the serious irregularities during the election process were a negative surprise."

Eric Mayer, the rapporteur for Macedonia at the European Parliament, suggested the EC was being too strict with the country. He said election problems should not pose an obstacle to starting negotiations.

But Rehn disagreed, saying the issue is fundamental. "The international monitors and OSCE said that the elections were not conducted according to the criteria, and that is a basic requirement. Yes, I said that there is improvement, but we will have to see that next year's elections are held according to international standards."

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevksi said his government has a strategy for tackling the problems cited by the EC. He added that while the report is probably realistic, Skopje needs to conduct more analysis before it can assess it fully.

"Anyway, we will say that the report is good," Gruevski said. "If we answer to the contrary, we will have a problem."

EU Ambassador to Macedonia Ervan Fuere said that out of 33 areas, the EU found good progress in 12 and poor progress in only five. In the remaining areas, there has been progress, but deeper reforms are needed.

"The government has to consider the report and to work in the direction of achieving political consensus and also fulfilling the criteria," Fuere said. "The opposition has to work together with the government in order to eliminate negative remarks. This is a collective responsibility; everyone should work in order to fulfil the criteria for EU integration."

As for the name dispute with Greece, Rehn said it is not part of the negotiation package for EU accession. He encouraged both sides to seek a quick solution, however.