Macedonia

Greece’s Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas reiterated Greece’s red lines regarding name issue at last night’s meeting with UN mediator Matthew Niumetz, Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

After last night’s meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon said that Athens’ position on name issue is clear, adding that they expressed will in solving name issue.

Matthew Nimetz, the UN mediator in the name row between Macedonia and Greece, said he sees a positive development in the dispute, but he didn’t table any new proposal during the late Sunday’s meeting with Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov.

Macedonia and Serbia agreed on Saturday (September 18th) to allow their citizens to cross the common border with ID cards instead of passports. The initiative was announced after a meeting in Skopje between Macedonian Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska and her Serbian counterpart, Ivica Dacic. The measure will initially be implemented

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, accompanied by Deputy PM for European Affairs Vasko Naumovski and Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki are set to travel to Brussels this afternoon, where tomorrow they will meet with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule.

The European Commission’s next report on Macedonia will be boosted after the parliament voted to adopt new ways of working, the EC’s office in Macedonia has said.

On September 8 Macedonia marks Independence Day, Macedonian media report. On this day 19 years ago Macedonia organized a referendum on which citizens backed the independence of their country. There will be many events to mark the Independence Day in Macedonia. September 9 is declared a national holiday and a …

The Greek and Macedonian governments have denied newspaper claims that a fresh proposal has been made by UN mediator Matthew Nimitz for a solution to the long-standing Athens-Skopje “name” row.

Bulgaria’s Minister on Regional Development and Macedonia’s Minister of Local Self-Government will sign a memorandum on understanding in the execution of a cross-border cooperation program between the two countries.

After meeting Macedonian President Gjorgje Ivanov, MEP Bernd Posselt expressed hope that Macedonia will get a date for start of EU accession talks in the first half of 2011.