ODIHR will send an observation mission to Macedonia for the name referendum. Following the assessment, ODIHR’s experts recommended 250 short-term and 20 long-term observers for the process on 30 September. The decision, according to ODIHR, aims to raise the trust in the way the referendum is held because the election observation boards will include no representatives of the political parties. ...

Through the web application 862 applications by citizens for voting at Macedonia’s diplomatic-consular missions abroad were filed by 2 pm on Wednesday. 836 have been accepted, 19 have been rejected, while the rest are being processed. Most of the applications were filed for voting in Bern, 72, London, 69, Toronto, 57, Ljubljana, 48, and Canberra, 36. Until Tuesday, 1,967 citizens ...

Within the frameworks of the session it held on Tuesday, the government dismissed Lazo Velkovski as Public Security Bureau Director, upon a proposal from Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski. It remains unknown who will succeed him. Until the successor is appointed, the Bureau will be headed by Deputy Director Besir Deari. Spasovski had filed the dismissal proposal because of the use ...

The marking of the 17th anniversary of the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement saw the Secretariat for European Affairs organise on Monday the panel “The road to Brussels via Ohrid”. Participants underlined the importance of the document as an instrument and example of resolving conflicts in the region and beyond. Also, they said they were sure that it had ...

“The friendship and cooperation between Macedonia and Bulgaria are honest,” PM Zoran Zaev writes on Facebook in response to the debate in the neighbouring country, following his comments that the Ilinden Uprising is Macedonian. According to him, both citizens and criticisers in the two countries should have no dilemmas regarding the positive development of the relations between the two sides ...

The Prime Minister of Macedonia Zoran Zaev met on Thursday afternoon the Head of the US European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, General Curtis Scaparrotti. At the meeting, as reported by the Government via a press release, Zaev thanked Scaparrotti and the entire NATO Alliance for the invite for Macedonia to become its 30th member-state. “The invite for NATO ...

Vice-PM and Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska says in an interview for Kanal 5 that she believes the citizens would support the referendum on the Prespa Agreement in order to provide better future for their children. “We are organising this referendum in order to consult the citizens about our further steps in the ratification of the Macedonia-Greece Name Issue Agreement. The ...

Former EU Ambassador to Macedonia Erwan Fouere believes that the Macedonian Government should start an intense information campaign before the referendum concerning the Macedonia-Greece Name Issue Agreement and the country’s integration in EU and NATO. “An inclusive public debate at both national and local level will be essential to ensure that citizens are given all the information needed to determine ...

In an interview for the Greek Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA), political analyst and former member of the International Crisis Group Edward Joseph says the agreement on the name issue reached between Macedonia and Greece deserves a Nobel Prize because it has created a new model for resolution of international disputes. “The real reason why this agreement deserves the Nobel Prize ...

In these crucial moments Macedonia needs unity, responsible politicians that will enable citizens to voice their opinion on the country’s future at a referendum, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev says in an interview with 1TV. “President Gjorge Ivanov and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE have been staunch advocates of a referendum for over a decade and now oppose the process, which is a ...