The President of the Republic of Turkey Suleyman Demirel will address the members of the Macedonian Parliament on the 14th of this month, as part of his official visit to RM.
The high-ranking guest from Turkey, as it is announced, will hold separate meetings with his host, President Kiro Gligorov, and Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski.
Yesterday, in the presidential palace of Canakaya in Ankara, President Demirel received the ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to Turkey Trajan Petrovski. In the friendly talks, the two sides exchange opinions on the more important activities in the bilateral relations and cooperation, as well as developments in the region, in the wake of President Demirel's visit to Macedonia.
They emphasized the significance of the talks that will be led with President Gligorov and the other Macedonian officials, for the advancement of the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries and the peace and stability on the region of the Balkans. During the visit, special attention will be given to the economic cooperation, is said in the announcement of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry.
Starting from tomorrow and until the eighth of this month, the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE will be held in Ottawa. The parliamentary delegation from Macedonia will also be taking part as an associated member. Regarding the activities of the Macedonian delegation at this session, Panche Nasev, heading this delegation, said: "Our aim is to attend the Parliamentary assembly of the OSCE as associated members, as we are still not accepted to this organization. We will try, through amendments, to pass a vote to lift the Greek embargo on Macedonia and to tackle the problem about Macedonia's accession to this organization, again. In addition, we will establish contacts with the other parliamentary members of this session."
The study trip of officers of the first class of the Macedonian Army, specializing in command-headquarter duties, started from yesterday. The trip will take place on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, and the listeners will be acquainted with a number of aspects from the field of preparations of the defence structures for the successful realization of the Macedonia's defence strategy.
The chief purpose of this trip is to elaborate on the elements of the operative and tactical directions in certain variants of defence war.
"The new economic tendencies from the former Yugoslav Republics are most successfully implemented in Slovenia and Macedonia." This is the conclusion reached by the Institute for Economic Sciences from Belgrade, the latest issue of the monthly review "Monthly analyses and prognoses," says.
According to the prognoses of the Institute, Slovenia has a GDP from $6 to $8,000 per capita, unlike Croatia which has $3,000 per capita.
In Macedonia and FRY, the GDP is somewhere around $1,000 per capita. Compared to the other Republics, Macedonia has the smallest increase in unemployment - 6.3%, unlike Croatia where the increase is 18% and Slovenia - 14.1%. The Institute assesses that at the start of 1995, industrial production notes an increase only in Slovenia - 8 index points, while in the other YU republics, it is dropping.
(WILL THE PDPA MPS GO BACK TO PARLIAMENT)
Following the return of the MPs from NDP (People's Democratic Party) back to Parliament, the only question left unanswered now is whether the MPs from PDPA (Party for Democratic Prosperity of the Albanians in Macedonia) will follow their example, who, together with all the MPs from the three Albanian parties in the country, decided to walk out of Parliament following the events in Mala rechica. Soon afterwards, the PDP MPs returned to Parliament, only to be followed by two NDP MPs these days, which means that still not in Parliament are the members of the party of Dzaferi and Tachi.
There is still no answer to the question whether PDPA is returning to Parliament. On a number of occasions, we tried to come into contact with Arben Dzaferi and Menduh Tachi, as most competent conversationalists on this topic, but their offices constantly claim that they are always on a trip somewhere. From the same place, also the information: "For now, I don't have any official stand about returning to Parliament."
So, it remains uncertain what kind of step the leaders of this party will take: whether they'll interrupt the six months of abstinence or go till the end and accept all the political risks they took on when they left Parliament, i.e be prepared and consistent in their demands at the price of new elections in the electoral units, where they took away victory. Therefore, legally speaking, the six-month abstinence of the MPs also means calling for new elections.
Which of these alternatives will be chosen remains to be seen, however, it is becoming apparent that in essence, it is all about alternatives which don't leave this party much room for action. Because, in February, the stance of this party was decisive, that they will return to Parliament only if they are allowed to speak in Albanian language. At the moment, new Rules of Procedure have still not been adopted, which means that the only language allowed to be used at the parliamentary stand continues to be only the Macedonian. Judging from this, returning under such conditions could be comprehended by the electoral body more like fear from new elections than a completed party activity, which has achieved the desired results.
On the other hand, the possibility of opening up new elections in the constituencies where the followers of Dzaferi took away victory, would mean a risk from losing some of the four places in Parliament that the party presently holds, and which would decrease its influence. Probably the calculations are now being made between these two alternatives - what will be won and what will be lost by accepting one of them, because it is an indisputable fact that the number of lost places in Parliament plays a very important role in the rating of the party.
NDP made its return to Parliament by calling a news conference at which it presented this move as a political victory, although it offered weak explanations for the effects achieved from the abstinence, expressing more regret that the abstinence was not supported by all the parties of Albanian nationality (mainly PDP), which, as it was said, reduced the effects. Probably PDPA will also not pass the possibility to speak about its stand about not participating in Parliament, publicly, but that is uncertain for now.
: The government Commission on the transformation of companies with state-owned capital did not accept at its last session the rules for handling a secondary procedure against individual legal acts adopted in the procedure for privatization, which should have cleared up the dilemma surrounding the instances and the realization of the constitutional right to complain against certain decisions of the participants in the process of privatization.
The reasons for this unacceptance, as the Minister of Economy Risto Ivanov said, who is also president of this Commission, is that the Government would previously have to ask for a change to the law on privatization.
According to Ivanov, if the Government accepts to change the law, then those changes would have to determine the model of privatization, where and to what can a complaint be filed, and who will be in charge of making the decision. Pending the changes to the current law on privatization, the present rules will stay in effect, to address the right to complaint to the Agency for privatization and its Managing board, as well as the courts instances in the state.
The Commission received a draft-rulesbook made up of 13 articles, which determine the manner of handling a secondary procedure. However, since such competence of the Commission is not prescribed by law, if the Government wants their expansion, it will have to follow a regular procedure - changes to the law, for which it will have to speak up separately.
The Government has already included in its daily agenda the announced criteria for assessment of the offers upon the sale of companies to people who take the managing over, whereby two types of criteria are observed: one proposal of the Agency for privatization and another of the government Commission for privatization. According to these criteria, the offered price for purchasing the company with 40%, 15-20%, the employment will also be considered, as well as the development strategy and investments.