The President of the Republic of Turkey Suleyman Demirel will be arriving in Macedonia on July 13, this year, on a two-day official visit, at the invitation of President Gligorov.
President Demirel will be staying in Ohrid and Skopje, to meet with President Kiro Gligorov, as well as sign agreements for cooperation between the two countries. Arriving with him will also be the Turkish Foreign Minister, who will meet with his Macedonian counterpart.
President Demirel is also expected to address the Macedonian Parliament, and at the end of his visit, the two presidents are expected to hold a news conference.
This visit presents a continuation of the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries and a step forward in the development of the inter-state cooperation, is said in the announcement of the presidential cabinet.
President Kiro Gligorov met yesterday with the president of the Democratic Union of Kosovo Dr. Ibrahim Rugova. They exchanged opinions on the situation in Kosovo and Macedonia, and broader in the region, and expressed concern over the escalation of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, both sides affirmed that peace and stability in the Balkans can be guaranteed only by settling the open issues through talks and political means and by strengthening the European option of the Balkan states, the presidential cabinet announced.
A Macedonian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski, is taking part in this year's session of the UN Economic and Social Council in Geneva.
Minister Crvenkovski is expected to address the participants in this meeting, which will also be attended by UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali.
The vice-president of the Socialist party of Serbia Goran Perchevich, who stayed in Macedonia last weekend as a guest of the Congress of the Socialist party of Macedonia, was received by President Kiro Gligorov this Monday.
According to the Serbian press, the Macedonian president showed an interest in the normalization of the relations between the two countries, and the need to renew and strengthen the bilateral relations. The "Vecernje Novosti" correspondent reports that the talks focused on the traditional friendship and closeness between the two nations and the joint wish for sincere promotion of the good neighborly relations. It was also emphasized that the intensification of the political contacts creates a better atmosphere for settling the open issues.
The delegation of the Socialist party of Serbia was also received by the president of the Macedonian Parliament Stojan Andov. According to reports of the Macedonian correspondents of the Serbian press, support for the revival of the joint contacts was expressed. Among the rest, Andov said that Macedonia is suffering enormous losses because of the international sanctions against FRY, which is a consequences from the mutual reliance of the two economies. They also discussed the possibilities of starting the inter-parliamentary cooperation.
"Vecernje Novosti" also says that the delegation spoke with the Minister of Finance Jane Miljovski.
The general assessment of the Serbian press is that all the talks led in Skopje present a significant step forward in the revival of the political dialogue which has been at a standstill for a longer period of time.
The Macedonian Interior Ministry is informing the citizens that starting from July 5, 1995, from 13.00 hours, the regime of crossing the Macedonian-Yugoslav border is changed. Namely, Macedonian citizens can cross the border only with valid travelling documents, and not personal I.D. cards, like before.
The appointment of Dobri Velichkovski as director of the Office for counter-intelligence and security, at the Government's last session, did not pass unanimously, Makpress reports. The proposal of Interior Minister Ljubomir Frckovski, namely, did not receive the support of the ministers Albanians in the Government.
The Albanian ministers mainly complained about the involvement of Dobri Velichkovski in the affairs "Blue bird" and "Albanian paramilitary."
"Nova Makedonija" reports today that 120-150 high officials in the ministries are expected to be dismissed. The newspaper states that this action will involve all ministries, without exception, and the explanation for this act with probably be - unsatisfactory work results.
The newspaper reminds of the obligation to reduce the administration 10%. Random estimates say that this would mean proclaiming 5,000 employees in the state administration technological surplus.
The newspaper comments that "this upcoming cleansing which is aimed at the top, could bring about a situation in which ministers, their deputies, assistants, as well as their former employees, who might have been proclaimed technological surplus precisely by them, will find themselves looking for new jobs at the Employment Bureau, alongside each other."
"ADMISSION WITH A POSSIBLE DELAY!?"
Macedonia will be accepted to the Council of Europe, but it is still not known when that will be. Despite optimistic announcements by the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Miguel Angel Martinez who was in Macedonia last month, who said it is realistic to expect our country to gain the status of regular member of this European organization by the end of his mandate (that is to say - by the end of this year), but obviously something is not going as planned.
The member of the Macedonian Parliament Nikola Popovski, who headed our delegation at the June session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, did not bring much encouraging news from Strasbourg, at least as far as this year's accession of Macedonia is concerned, and warned of possible delays. Hence, the way things stand now, it seems there will be nothing of the champagne that the president Martinez and the president of the parliamentary commission for foreign affairs Ilinka Mitreva made a deal to share, agreeing in the bet that Macedonia will join the Council of Europe in November, this year.
EUROPEAN PROCEDURES
The reasons for the possible delay in our acceptance do not lye so much in our unpreparedness for membership in the European organization as much as the procedures which are necessary to obtain an equal status. As it is known, this spring the three rapporteurs of the three commissions of the Council of Europe were in Macedonia - the legal one, the political one and that for the acceptance of new members, and their reports were mainly - positive. These reports should be submitted and reviewed by the commissions, who adopt them and which then go on to the daily agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly. The Assembly then makes a positive decision and the accession is carried out at the Ministerial Committee with majority votes, and the right to veto is excluded. The procedure for Macedonia's acceptance is underway, and the next phase in line is for the commissions to hold meetings with the rapporteurs. This was anticipated to take place somewhere towards the end of August, the beginning of September, only for the Parliamentary Assembly to reach a decision that same month.
However, there are indications that the commissions will not be ready to do that within the period Martinez predicted. There are a couple of reasons - from the fact that the Legal commission decided to hold a working meeting in Macedonia, provided it manages to gather a sufficient number of members over the summer months which is, right, the vacation season; to the fact that the state of health of one of the rapporteurs isn't all that good, due to which the meetings of that commission are being postponed, twice already. In effect, the certain doze of bureaucratization of the bodies of the Council of Europe was also criticized recently by the president Martinez, who, in turn, is called by the members of the commissions and the other institutions of the Council of Europe the "star of promises," because he "promises accession to new members much to easily."
NORMAL REMARKS
Which ever way, it is quite clear that even despite Greek opposition, which is constantly following our acceptance (the review of our application for acceptance was six months late thanks to the Greeks), and despite the letter from PDP warning that Macedonia is still not "mature enough" for the Council of Europe (a very unpleasant act for Macedonia, which, reportedly, did not have any greater consequences for the acceptance!?), and in spite of the bureaucratization and sluggishness of the bodies of the Council of Europe, and even despite the fact that "President Gligorov and Prime Minister Crvenkovski did not give interviews for the oppositional newspapers" (one of the more juicy, according to the MP Popovski, remarks in the reports of the rapporteurs), Macedonia meets the conditions for accession to the Council of Europe. And that is an indisputable fact. The remarks that are in the reports of the rapporteurs are a normal thing and they are present in the key reports for acceptance of all candidates for full membership. So, for instance, if we regard the report on Albania, which gained a "green light" from the Parliamentary Assembly, it can be concluded that the Council of Europe is letting a new member in which meets much less requirements than, for instance, Macedonia. Just as it can be concluded that the admission of Albania, at this moment, was a purely political decision for greater stability of this country, which, following its accession, will have to fulfill many more conditions which, for i.e. Macedonia has already.
Therefore, Macedonia should wait for its admission to the Council of Europe without being nervous. And, even more realistically, and it seems Popovski's news conference following the participation of our delegation in the June session in Strasbourg was exactly in that context. Most probably, so as to make sure there are no disappointments if we are not on the daily agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly in September. The procedure is underway, and for now, it is going relatively normally - Macedonia is a lot ahead in the formalities than other countries that have submitted applications for admission. It would be good if, in the meantime, attempts are made to eliminate the bureaucratic obstacles and speed up the party coordinations over, for instance, the law on local self-management. For the time being, at least, there is not cause for alarm. Even more, it is unofficially speculated that there is a possibility, no matter how small, of Martinez and Mitreva sharing that champagne after all!
A new factory for the production of waterworks and sewage pipes was opened in Prilep today. A line for the production of all types of plastic irrigation pipes was also introduced. The owner of the factory is the protective organization "Roloplast."
According to the director Mile Veleski, the factory covers an area of 1,200 m2, and an investment of 400,000 DM. 30 workers will find employment, who are expected to produce 80- 100,000 meters of pipes. Furthermore, they are expecting to expand the production to electric and PTT cables.
The two-day talks between the delegations of the Macedonian and Turkish transport ministries ended in Ankara yesterday. Agreement was reached on a number of issues in the field of bilateral transportation, as well as the current traffic situation on the Balkans and the problems. Turkey approved a contingent of 500 transportation permits to and fro third countries.
The tourist transportation with busses between the countries will be carried out freely, and all the lines in the regular transportation between the two countries have been coordinated. It has also been arranged to hold a meeting between the railroad administrations, to review the possibility of including the Turkish railways in the construction of the railroad track from Macedonia toward Bulgaria, is said in the announcement of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry.
The factory for the processing and preservation of fruit and vegetables "Zora" from Gevgelija has starting work on the processing of tomatoes, pickles and peppers. This year's production is estimated at 7,000 tones of these agricultural products, of which 80% will be marketed abroad, especially Germany.
The factory has completed the production of fig jam, producing 50 tones, while the new line for the production of apricot, peaches and orange juice is working with full steam. 600,000 DEM were invested in this production line.
The factory "11 Oktomvri" from Skopje, together with the Tutaev motor institute from the Russian Federation, has started manufacturing jointed ecological busses for city traffic. The bus is with an eco-motor built according to strict ecological standards and which can also be sold on world markets
"11 Oktomvri," together with a number of Macedonian partners, is participating with 30-40% in the production, which amounts to $ 50,000 per bus. It is estimated that there is a market for this type of bus of up to $ 55 million.