At the invitation of Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski, the Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Sereci will be staying on an official visit to the Republic of Macedonia from August 20 to 22, is said in the announcement of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry.
The Serb refugees are settling Kosovo at the order of the forces preparing a colonization of this region, which could well be the cause of a new Balkan war - the newspaper "Rilindija" assesses.
In the commentary entitled "The Colonizers on Kosovo - a new alarm for the Balkan war," the Pristina "Rilindija," which is printed in Tirana, stresses that the massive settlement of the Serb refugees is a serious provocation, both for the Albanians and the whole region. Pointing out that the leader of the Democratic Alliance Meritan Ceka is promoting the idea of Albania accepting refugees from Kraina, "Rilindija" accused him of secretly collaborating with Belgrade.
"Our remark still applies to the use of the quantitative criterion of 20% which determines the term considerable number of the minority population in a municipality," the leader of the Democratic Party Petar Goshev says.
"That question should have been resolved with some other act that would define the general approach of the state to the question regarding the use of the languages of the nationalities, and not with such an incidental solution," Goshev assesses.
Goshev is wondering whether the acceptance of the figure 20% does not present an attempt to push in through a small door the use of two languages throughout all of Macedonia, that is to say, the implementation of a second language. "If that is a stance of the Government, then it should come out in front of the public and explain that with arguments," Goshev says.
To IMRO-DPMNU, the figure of 50% which defines the majority population and 20% which defines the category considerable number is unacceptable and they feel these numbers lead to the federalization of Macedonia. IMRO-DPMNU feels that this gives the majorities the opportunity to change the toponyms in the country. The only acceptable figures to this oppositional party are 90% when it comes to the category majority and 45% concerning the category considerable number.
The opposition is also unsatisfied in view of the question of jurisdiction of the municipality, which, according to it, still remain undefined, with the exception of some minimal improvements.
The Democratic Party feels that the offered government model for the local self-management has two great shortcomings - it is too restrictive, i.e. it sticks to the concept of hypertrophirated competence of the state organs, and it does not even have any precisely determined sources of financing, outside the redistributive sources. The lawmaker, according to DP, has left the question of the size of the municipality open, out of various reasons, which would directly point out the solutions to these mentioned problems.
Out of a total of 15,576 foreseen surplus workers in the 25 "loss-makers", there are 11,110 workers recorded as unemployed up till now. They are receiving financial compensations through the Employment Bureau for their unemployment for a temporary period of time, depending on their years of service.
However, the money these people should be receiving every month comes late. Namely, they received the cheques for the month of May on July 26. It has been only 5 months since the payments started, and the money is are already coming 3 months late.
Unlike the other beneficiaries of unemployment compensation (bankruptcy workers, technological surplus, etc.) for whom the money comes from the budget of the Employment Bureau, the money for these workers comes from the state budget. The empty budget is actually the main reason for the irregular payment of the compensation. In April, the Employment Bureau asked for MKD 73 million from the state budget to settle the obligations toward these workers for the month of June, however, there are still no announcements that this money will arrive.
These days, the first 4 meters of tunnel no.9 in the village of Psaca were bored through, along the route foreseen for the new railroad track Beljakovce-Gjueshevo, which practically marks the beginning of the construction of the tunnels along the section, which is being built by the construction company "Pelagonija," in cooperation with the Austrian firm "AST" from Gratz. In the last couple of days, the first 7 meters of the tunnel long 64 meters were made.
According to predictions, the hole for the tunnel should be fully completed in around 10 days, while the work on building the border tunnel should also begin in the meantime, which totals 1,325 meters on Macedonian territory.
Otherwise, the construction company "Pelagonija" intends to build 14 tunnels along the section from the village Ginovci to Kriva Palanka.
"This year, the doors were open to Macedonia for intensive cooperation within the 'Partnership for peace' initiative, which our country is not a member of, yet, but it's actions are as though it has a full equal status," Defence Minister Blagoy Handziski stated at yesterday's news conference.
He placed a special accent on the cooperation in the sphere of defence with the U.S.A., pointing out as an illustration the presence of the contact liaisons team of the U.S. Army, which has been staying in Macedonia since March 1. "Over this whole period," Handziski said, "intensive work has been done on restructuring the Macedonian Army according to NATO standards, and so far, numerous sessions with military representatives of the member-states of the NATO have been held, precisely in the function of transformation of the Macedonian Army according to the new standards.
The Republic market inspection carried out 2,370 inspections last month, in which it confiscated goods to the value of MKD 384,000 (US$ 9,825) from re-sellers of cigarettes, textile products and other goods for general consumption, as the goods were sold without an appropriate decision from a competent organ. For selling goods without declaration, warranty, technical instructions and expired shelf life, the market inspectors issued decisions placing out of circulation goods to the value of MKD 9.7 million (US$ 248,200).
Upon the control of the quality of the agricultural and food products in July, this year, 8 decisions banning imports were issued, while the quantity of products that are not allowed to be imported totals 124 tones.
197 companies and responsible persons have been charged with economic offenses, 1,137 companies are faced with violation proceedings, while decisions in administrative procedure have been filed against 789 legal and physical persons.
In the period January-May, 1995, compared to the same period in 1994, the quantity of transported goods in road transportation has decreased 6.1%, while the ton kilometers have increased 8.7%. In that same period, the number of transported passengers has dropped 17.3%, and the passenger kilometers - 8.5%.
The number of transported passengers in the city and suburb traffic has gone down 7.7% in the same period, and the kilometers passed - 1.3%.
In the railroad transport, the quantity of transported goods in the period January-May, 1995, compared to the same period in 1994, has dropped 27.4%, while the net ton kilometers - 39.1%. The number of transported passengers in the railroad traffic has dropped 1.6%, and the passenger kilometers have increased 9.1%.