Macedonia Opposition Leader Cancels Brussels Meeting

Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev announced on Friday that, following comments by Commissioner Hahn in Washington about previous elections in Macedonia, the opposition party will not attend talks in Brussels set for June 10.

He especially criticised Hahn's comments about "the generally positive reports of the monitoring mission of OSCE/ODIHR" concerning elections held in Macedonia.

"Neither OSCE/ODIHR nor the EU have concluded that the elections were positive," Zaev said. He also said the wiretapped conversations that the opposition has been releasing since February have unmasked "the criminal background of several elections organised by [Prime Minister] Nikola Gruevski.

"The statement Hahn made in Washington has elements of bias and is inappropriate on the eve of the crucial meeting in Brussels," Zaev said.

"I want to emphasise that throughout this period we have been highly constructive despite being in a position of disadvantage. We have given our maximum in this process and we expect that to be respected by all sides," Zaev added, noting that since the meeting with Hahn on June 2, more charges had been filed against him, for receiving a bribe.

In Washington, Hahn was quoted as saying that elections have to be prepared, the electoral code needs to be modified and voters lists have to be checked.

However, he went to say that the last elections, like other elections in the country, had been monitored by the OSCE and in general the report on them had been positive.

After hours of talks with Macedonia's leaders in Skopje, Hahn extracted an agreement on a transition period leading up to snap elections that must take place by next April.

The details about who will lead Macedonia in the upcoming period...