EU commissioner urges Macedonian opposition to end boycot in parliament

A visiting European Commissioner on Tuesday called on Macedonian opposition party to end boycotting and return to parliament, where they can fulfill their obligations to resolve all the political issues, local media reported.

"My position and the position of the European Union is that all political parties should direct the political debate within Parliament, and not outside of it. I'm here to help find a way out of the political situation. The opposition should return to Parliament, and solve all political issues there", Macedonian Information Agency cited European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn as saying.

Opposition Social Democrat Union of Macedonia (SDSM) has boycotted parliament since last April's general elections, alleging the ruling party won the elections by fraud.

In light of the successful negotiations brokered by EP representatives Eduard Kukan and Knut Fleckenstein in Albania which brought the opposition, the Democratic party, back to the parliament, the European parliament is intended to assist to convince Macedonian opposition to return to the assembly.

"I have asked representatives of the main political parties in the European Parliament to make a similar effort as we have done successfully in Albania, where the representatives of the European Parliament, Mr. Kukan and Mr. Fleckenstein, managed to arrange an agreement which led to the situation that the opposition party went back to the Parliament," Commissioner Hahn said.

As for the Macedonian EU integration prospect, Commissioner Hahn discussed with Fatmir Besimi, Macedonian deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, about the High Level Accession Dialogue (HLAD) which was promoted in 2012 by Stefan Fule, the EU Enlargement Commissioner then.

The HLAD program will lead Macedonia move forward in aligning its reforms with the EU, before the accession negotiations to be opened officially, said Besimi

Five priorities has been defined in the frame of the dialogue which include freedom of media, crack down on corruption and organized crime, inter-ethnic relations, reforms of public administration and economic boost.

Macedonian President Ivanov also proposed that dual track negotiations to be held, as Macedonian can be allowed to start its EU accession negotiations when it is resolving its name row with Greece for Greece has vetoed the opening of Macedonian EU accession negotiations for six years in a row despite the positive recommendations from the European Commission. Enditem