In the conclusions which the foreign ministers of the EU should adopt within the following two days in Brussels at the regular December’s summit, worsening of the democratic condition is registered.
Welcoming the fact that the European agenda “remains a strategic priority,” in the country, ministers say that politicization of state institutions must be reduced, , and, also, the Council calls on the opposition and the Government to overcome the political crisis and to find common ground and it appealed to establishment of greater trust between ethnic communities. Ministers also stated their opinion on the name dispute, repeating that it is necessary for a mutually acceptable solution to be found.
In the part of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the conclusion is the same third year in a row: The review of the Ohrid Framework Agreement needs to be completed rapidly and its recommendations implemented.
This year, like the past two years, the word “review” initiated debates. The question is whether the conclusions of the foreign ministers of the European Union refer to revision or review of the Ohrid Framework Agreement.
According to analyst Merselj Biljali, it’s the diplomatic vocabulary of the European Union.
– This word can be interpreted in both ways, as a revision and review. European Union wants to rule affirmative for the Framework Agreement, not restrictive – said Biljali.
He, however, said that the key problem is the failure to implement the Ohrid Framework Agreement, whose deadline for meeting the provisions was in 2004.
– The problem with failure to implement Ohrid Agreement is a human factor. All parties, Macedonian and Albanian, don’t want to leave their comfort zone, so they leave the issue unresolved. Something similar is also happening with the agenda of the Euro-Atlantic integration of Macedonia – concludes Biljali.
Analyst Ramadan Ramadani agrees and says that the Framework Agreement is a party tool of DUI for the leadership of this party to achieve their personal ambitions. However, all parties from both camps want to bypass this Agreement, thus leaving the problems of Albanians unsolved.
As for the conclusions of the foreign ministers of the EU for this agreement, Ramadani said that it indicates the quality of implementation.
– For two years, the Government is required to prepare a qualitative analysis, but it never happened. The deadline for completion of the implementation of the Framework Agreement is delayed for 10 years now – said Ramadani.
The different interpretation of the word “review” began in 2012, after the publication of the joint column of the European Commissioner at the time, Stefan Füle, and Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in the daily “Dnevnik”.
Then the Government responded that the column of the Prime Minister and the European Commissioner Füle is written in English, adjusted and confirmed at the Cabinet level, and is sent as such to the medium in which it has been published.
“It is obvious that they have made an error in translation. In the English version of the article, there is no word “revision”, only “review”, and it refers to the report on the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which was adopted by the Government. Revision and review are lexically and politically completely different terms,” reads the reaction of the Government spokesman Aleksandar Gjorgjievski.
