Macedonia Leaders Pledge to Honour Election Deal

After an hour of talks in Skopje, Macedonia's political leaders agreed to honour the snap election deal brokered on June 2 during the visit to Skopje of the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, as a basis for future talks.

Hahn has extracted an agreement on a transition period leading up to snap elections that must take place by next April.

However, Macedonian opposition and government parties have since failed to agree on details about the transitional government, most importantly on whether Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski will step down from office ahead of the polls.

Gruevski, the head of the main opposition Social Democatic Party, Zoran Zaev, the head of the junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration, Ali Ahmeti, and the head of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, Menduh Thaci, left the Skopje meeting without talking to journalists. A joint statement was announced for later.

The meeting was also attended by the EU and US ambassadors to Macedonia, Aivo Orav and Jess Baily.

The fresh talks come after the Prime Minister and opposition failed to reach an agreement on transition government during EU-brokered negotiations in Brussels on June 11.

Meanwhile EU Commissioner Hahn, who mediated the Brussels talks, has handed visiting Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Besimi an EU crisis report, which calls for urgent reforms in several key areas.

"The report is updated with the latest developments in the country and it also includes an analysis by EC expert Reinhard Priebe, highlighting the priorities which Macedonia needs to fulfil as soon as possible," Besimi noted.

Although the document has not been released, a source close to the European Union delegation in Skopje told...