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EU urges Macedonia to form new gov't soon

Xinhua, January 25, 2017 Adjust font size:

Macedonia needs to form a government as soon as possible in order to initiate reforms and resolve its name issue with Greece as these issues would allow Macedonia to open its EU accession talks, local media cited European Commissioner Johannes Hahn as saying Tuesday.

Hahn made these statements at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) when asked by PACE members Mark Pritchard and Liz Christopherson about the developments in Macedonia, the Macedonian information agency said.

According to media reports, Hahn stressed that the new government should also have a broad majority in parliament.

On the other hand, Hahn described the EU's role in Macedonia as one showing determination in reaching a political agreement that would allow the country to exit the political crisis, MIA reported.

The VMRO-­DPMNE won a narrow victory against the Social Democrats (SDSM), winning 51 and 49 seats respectively.

As the party winning the most seats in Macedonia's 120-seat parliament, the VMRO-DPMNE led by Nikola Gruevski was mandated by President Gjorge Ivanov to form the new government.

But so far, there has been no sign of any agreement for possible coalitions between VMRO-DPMNE and any of other parties to form the new government.

At least 61 seats are needed to create the new government. Endit