Summer Halts Work on Macedonia Crisis Deal

The cross-party working group that meets under the guidance of the former Belgian MP and expert Peter Vanhoutte has halted work on pinpointing key reforms and is to go on a summer break until August 17.

Last week, senior representatives of Macedonia's warring parties helped by Vanheute discussed boosting the legal powers of several key state offices like the State Electoral Commission, the regulatory Agency for Media, the Public Safety Bureau and the Public Revenue Office. 

However, despite considering a proposal to restrict diaspora voting and to introduce a new way of compiling the electoral roll, by pre-registering voters ahead of elections, nothing concrete was agreed.

Darko Aleksov, head of the NGO MOST, which has been at the forefront of the domestic election monitoring process and whose advice was heard by the group, said this would reduce state involvement in the electoral process.

"This would mean that the state would no longer be tasked with registering voters. Instead the voters will be able to register themselves within a certain period ahead of the elections," said Aleksov.

The strengthening of important state bodies is seen as crucial for the improvement of democratic standards so that free and fair early elections can be ensured next April.

With the help of James Hamilton, the former director of Ireland's public prosecution, the party representatives also discussed details about the formation of a new fully autonomous prosecution that would be tasked with processing all the allegations of wrongdoing that came out of the covertly recorded tapes at the centre of the country's illegal surveillance scandal.

The political crisis in Macedonia revolves around allegations that VMRO DPMNE...