Tag: Macedonia

Greece's foreign minister boycotted festivities marking 100 years of Albania's independence after its prime minister hailed a town over the border as part of "Albanian lands". The European Commission declined to comment today (29 November).

Bulgaria has joined Greece in vetoing the opening of EU accession talks with Macedonia, despite a positive recommendation by the European Commission.

Greece has tabled a draft memorandum of understanding apparently aimed at seeking a solution to its long-standing name dispute with EU candidate Macedonia. But EU diplomats expressed disappointment at its content, which doesn’t appear to make new proposals.

Macedonia has accused Greece of dumping illegal migrants on its territory, the Macedonian daily Dnevnik reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. 

A two-day NATO summit continues today (21 May) with the future of the alliance’s action in Afghanistan and the Europe-based anti-missile shield featuring high on the agenda. In contrast, NATO enlargement has been taken off the table.

Police in Macedonia arrested 20 people yesterday (1 May), including radical Islamists who reportedly fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, for the murder of five men at a lake near the capital Skopje in mid-April.

Hundreds of young Macedonia Slavs marched in Skopje yesterday (17 April) to protest against the killings of five fishermen north of the capital. Speculation about Albanian-led gang-style executions were reinforced by threats from a so-called "Army for the liberation of Albanian lands" to launch new attacks. 

The European Commission "deeply regretted" a spate of attacks between Macedonia's Slav and Albanian communities and called on politicians and civil society to handle the "emotional aftermath" with care, a spokesperson for enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle said yesterday (12 March).  

Austrian MEP Ulrike Lunacek (Greens/EFA group), the European Parliament's rapporteur on Kosovo, urges the five EU countries that have not recognised Kosovo's independence – Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia and Spain – to do so. She spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Denmark's permanent representative to the EU said today (23 November) that he does not foresee the start of accession talks with Serbia under the coming Danish presidency, despite high expectations created in Belgrade by the arrest of war crimes fugitives.

Hundreds of Macedonian journalists protested in Skopje yesterday (4 July) after several media organisations critical of the government closed down at the weekend and others announced possible closure and layoffs, the press in the region reported.

In an unprecedented move, Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle has warned Macedonia that the country could lose the recommendation to start accession negotiations which it received last year, if no progress is made on the path to reform and if the EU hopeful keeps on taking actions considered by Greece as "provocations".

Macedonia's conservative ruling party, the nationalist centre-right VMRO-DPMNE, claimed victory in yesterday's (5 June) early parliamentary elections but will probably have to seek coalition partners to form a stable government.

The European Commission said it will propose tomorrow (24 May) to reintroduce visas for Western Balkan countries whose citizens abuse the system.

Macedonia said it was ready to agree to a proposal by the UN's special envoy to change its name and thus resolve a long-standing dispute with Greece, but that the decision would have to be approved in a nationwide referendum.

Strange as it may sound, the head of the (unrecognised) Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC), Archbishop Stefan lashed out in a Christmas interview for the media at young mother Spaska Mitrova, who has been harassed by the Skopje authorities for taking Bulgarian citizenship. Lazar Mladenov, president of the Bulgarian Cultural Club in Skopje, looks into the matter. 

By making a success of further enlargement, as well as improving its public perception, the EU will be able to better address the many other challenges which it faces, argues the European Commission's enlargement strategy for 2010-2011, unveiled yesterday (9 November).

Those who think that followers of the late Slobodan Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia are on the political garbage heap are terribly wrong. Not only have such people not been thrown out of today's politics, but they still continue to manage many parts of the post-Yugoslav geopolitical space, writes Lazar Mladenov, president of the Bulgarian Cultural Club in Skopje.  

A renowned research institute has suggested that Macedonia change its name to an agreed formula on the day of its EU accession as a means of resolving its ongoing dispute with Greece. As exotic as this may seem, the proposal has already triggered interest and debate in regional media.

By the end of 2011, under the Polish EU Presidency, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo should all receive EU candidate status, a policy paper by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) advocates.

Blocking the start of EU accession talks with Macedonia over the country's 'name conflict' with Greece is "perverse", as it is unacceptable for a country to be denied use of whatever name it chooses, Zhelyu Zhelev, Bulgaria's first democratically-elected president, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The EU's representative in Macedonia, Ambassador Erwan Fouéré, urged Skopje yesterday (6 April) to speedily resolve a 19-year dispute with Greece over the Balkan country's name. Recent statements by a Greek official were reported by the Western media – perhaps wrongly - as an "ouverture".

By the end of his term in 2014, Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Štefan Füle hopes to have achieved enough to end talk of "enlargement fatigue" and help EU citizens to see more clearly the benefits of an enlarged Europe.

Belgium and Sweden are swiftly returning ethnic Albanian and Roma asylum seekers to their countries of origin, hoping to avert an influx triggered by the recent removal of the visa requirement for Serbian and Macedonian nationals.