The leaders of the four political parties, mediated by the EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn after long talks, late this morning, reached an agreement for exit of the political crisis in the country.
– We reached an agreement, signed by the leaders of the four major parties and I am satisfied with the achieved – said Han after the meeting with the leaders of VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski, the SDSM Zoran Zaev, DUI leader Ali Ahmeti and DPA leader Menduh Tachi.
#Skopje: Agreement reached by political leaders in the interest of the country and its #citizens 1/2 pic.twitter.com/HKRaXVIZq8
— Johannes Hahn (@JHahnEU) July 14, 2015
Han stressed that the leaders agreed to early parliamentary elections and that focus will continue to be the implementation of the report of Priebe and other recommendations of the European Commission.
This agreement keeps the door open for the #Euro-Atlantic perspective and boosts #rule of law reforms. 2/2
— Johannes Hahn (@JHahnEU) July 14, 2015
The Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said that the political crisis in Macedonia is solved.
– The European perspectives for the Republic of Macedonia remain open, and the economy releases from restraints imposed by political crisis and will continue to increase, which means new jobs and new investments – said Gruevski.
He explained that according to the agreement as a systemic solution, from now for all future parliamentary elections 100 days before any elections the government will withdraw and a government for conducting elections will be formed. In our case, he noted, this would mean that the VMRO-DPMNE will nominate an interim prime minister for a period of 100 days, starting from 15 January 2016 until the elections that will be held on April 24, 2016.
– So one cannot have excuses and alibis for the results of the elections, we agreed that, starting from 20 October until the elections, SDSM in prior consultation with VMRO-DPMNE and DUI will propose technical interior minister, which means a person who in no way is associated with any political party – said Gruevski.
SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said that today’s agreement has confirmed everything his party and coalition partners indicated in the “truth about Macedonia” and that unless the Ministry of Interior SDSM will propose Minister of Labor and Social Policy. In the Ministries of Finance, Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy and Information Society, deputy ministers with the right of veto will be appointed.
On September 15 special prosecutor will be chosen, who will be in charge to investigate the contents of the evidence and arguments of intercepted telephone conversations.
– The new public prosecutor with full autonomous powers will get the materials that in a transparent way should be processed in parallel by the parliamentary committees also make their contents available to the public. Most important of all is that there will be legal consequences for all the evidence and arguments – said Zaev.
The opposition will return to Parliament in early September.
Hahn announced that next week in Brussels will hold a meeting of the EU Council will be held, which will consider the necessary reforms, high-level dialogue will continue in September, followed by a report on the progress of the country.
– This agreement will provide an opportunity for further extension of the recommendation to start negotiations. This should help some Member States which had resisted and blocked the opening of talks, to convince them to open the door for the European perspective of the country – said EU Commissioner Hahn.
He had a telephone conversation with the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland.
– This was confirmed by our American friends, but it must be said that this is a European agreement and that all parties have contributed to this agreement – said Hahn.
