The negotiations between Athens and Skopje will start in ten days, at the UN headquarters in New York, the Greek TV station "Mega" announced last night.
Calling upon anonymous diplomatic sources in New York and Washington, "TV Mega," as Makfaks reports, claims that a "transitional" agreement will be signed in New York, which is foreseen to change the symbol on the Macedonian flag, to lift the embargo and undertake measures for the free movement of passengers between the two countries.
According to the Athens television, the text of the agreement is prepared, the mediator Cyrus Vance has already made consultations and the document is expected to be signed within a couple of days from the start of the negotiations.
The Macedonian Government spokesman Gjuner Ismail said yesterday, in relation to the information released on "TV Mega," that the UN backed Macedonian-Greek negotiations will be resumed in ten days, that "President Gligorov met in Rome with the mediators Cyrus Vance and Matthew Nimetz. The meeting was in the function of the creation of an atmosphere for negotiations, and in that sense, our previously known stances were reiterated - that we are ready for negotiations, that the negotiations can not be led in the shadow of the embargo and that under such circumstances, there can be no negotiations."
In relation to the information from Greece, the U.S. mediator in the Macedonian-Greek dispute Matthew Nimetz told the Macedonian Radio: "I have not heard about these reports of the Greek press, but I know that Mr. Vance has not spoken with the Athens reporters, and neither have I. If we have anything to say, then we did so in the general announcement, of course, in relation to this meeting. Otherwise, at least for the moment, a meeting is not foreseen, and I can not give any statements for the future. Mr. Vance and I had a constructive meeting with President Gligorov and minister Crvenkovski in Rome, and we value the time that the President spent with us, but I don't have anything to say about the contents and the meeting, and I don't know where this information comes from," said Nimetz.
Macedonia is condemning the terrorism in Bosnia and Herzegovnia, the minister-spokesman Gjuner Ismail told the press yesterday. "The shelling of civilians and taking hostages presents an escalation of the military conflict in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At this moment, we would like to express our great concern over this situation. As a member of the UN, we resolutely condemn the taking of hostages from the ranks of the members of the peacekeeping forces, who are present there with a completely different mandate and are not in a situation to retaliate to the terrorist action. With these acts, the Bosnian Serbs entirely close the space for any kind of diplomatic solutions.
The Republic of Macedonia has always been for the diplomatic resolution of the questions, which have grown into military conflicts and thus feels that these terrorist acts must stop, in order to create enough room for diplomacy to take over," Ismail stated.
The four-member British parliamentary delegation, led by Baroness David, which has been staying in Macedonia a couple of days, has already met with members of a number of parliamentary commissions, Speaker of Parliament Andov, and has more meetings lined up with a couple of ministers and the President of the Republic Kiro Gligorov.
In all the meetings, the guests from Great Britain expressed special interest in the inter-ethnic relations in the country, in particular the situation of the Albanian minority, its educational problems and the reasons as to why the opening of the University in Albanian language in Tetovo can not be allowed. In relation to these problems, the way in which the British parliamentarians were briefed depended on the party membership of the Macedonian MPs (the Macedonian parties claim that these problems are solved within the framework of the laws and institutions of the system, and the Albanians, that the intellectuals, initiators of the idea of the University, are subjected to political repression).
The Macedonian Radio commented on Tuesday, and the Macedonian Television last night, that "it is really curious how the British parliamentarians know so much about the inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia, the illegal university in Albanian language and the problems of the Albanian minority, but don't know the name of the Prime Minister of the country they're visiting."
At the Forum of the left-wing and progressive forces on the Balkans, which will be held for the first time from June 2-6 in Athens, beside the representatives of some twenty political parties from six Balkan and a couple of other European countries, representatives from Macedonia have also been invited and will take part. According to the latest information, two representatives from the Socialist party (Mihail Levanski and Jovan Pejkovski) will be participating in this meeting, while the SDUM has rejected the invitation because of being much too busy.
The money that the State Election Committee approved to the parties and independent MPs in December, last year, has finally been distributed.
The last to receive these funds were the Liberals, who received 8,113,242 denars and the Socialist party, which received its 2,215,260 denars.
As it is known, these funds caused the dispute between the Liberal party and the Minister of Finance Jane Miljovski, who, according to the Liberals, allegedly transferred their funds to the account of his party SDUM.
The factory "Frinko" from Bitola has started the program for the production of household refrigerators with ecological characteristics. So far, investments of 130,000 DM have enabled the replacement of harmful freons with freons whose characteristics were determined at the International Conference in Montreal, 1989.
The program for the replacement of freons with harmful effects on the living environment will continue until the year 2010, which will require an investment of 3.2 million DM.
At yesterday's meeting of the Trade-Industrial Chamber of the Russian federation and the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, it was jointly concluded that the economic cooperation between the two countries is quite small. Apparently, the reason for this is the lack of flow of information between the two countries. This, on the other hand, leads to the situation that the trade exchange between the two countries is carried out through Bulgarian and German mediators causing the outflow of profits to another side.
Last year, the overall exchange between the two countries was US$ 121 million , and compared to 1993, that means a drop of 51.8%.
The air companies "Palair Macedonian" and "Macedonian Air Transport" (MAT) signed an agreement yesterday for joint flights toward the destinations Duesseldorf, Frankfurt and Berlin in Germany and Zurich in Switzerland.
This agreement, according to Goran Pavlovski, manager of the Sector for civilian air traffic with the Ministry of Traffic and Relations, presents the first step toward better organization of the air traffic in the country, which will be felt by the passengers immediately, and which will also have an affect on better financial results for both companies.
This agreement, as its signatories emphasized, is also planned to expand to other destinations these two companies are servicing, and there is also the possibility of a merger. This merger also leaves the possibility for the joining of the third air company in the country - "Avioimpex."
There are two possible alternatives in relation to the insurance of citizen's savings accounts in Macedonian banks. The first alternative is offered by the insurance agency "Makedonija," which offers the insurance of the savings accounts according to the tariff of 0.12% per month for on-sight deposits, and 0.15% for fixed term deposits.
The second alternative is offered by the People's Bank of Macedonia, according to which the banks should found a common insurance fund with the advance payment of 1.5% of the savings accounts in their bank.
The insurance agency "Makedonija" feels that the People's Bank of Macedonia is dealing with insurance matters illegally, and officials at the Ministry of Finance share this opinion. The director of the insurance agency "Makedonija" informed that this firm has 80 million DM in cash, or 230 million DM as annual insurance premium.
On the other hand, the bankers are more interested in the alternative offered by the People's Bank of Macedonia, seeing that they feel the insurance agency "Makedonija" is asking for much too large insurance sums.
The overall savings of the citizens in Macedonia add up to 4.3 billion MKD (US$ 117 million), and the banks, according to the Law for banks and savings banks, have to insure these savings in the shortest time possible.