Ambassadors Demand Action From Macedonia PM

The ambassadors of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union, in a joint statement on Tuesday urged Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party to urgently implement several key reforms that they agreed this summer.

"Late Friday night, we met with Prime Minister Gruevski and expressed our disappointment at the failure to meet the October 20 deadline agreed to in the July 15 Przino Agreement for the exchange of ministers," the statement said.

The warning came after the government and opposition at EU-mediated talks missed the October 20 deadline to appoint new opposition ministers to the government.

The parties previously missed the deadline for a package of urgent electoral reforms to ensure free and fair early elections in April.

They also failed to enable the Special Prosecutor to start probing the illegal surveillance cases on which the entire crisis in Macedonia centres.

"We urge VMRO-DPMNE to demonstrate the required commitment and to implement the agreement in a constructive and urgent manner and with good faith," the ambassadors said.

They called on Gruevski "to empower his team to finalise agreement on the unresolved issues in the Przino Agreement and implement the necessary reforms quickly."

They also urged Gruevski to give all necessary resources to the Special Prosecutor, whose team of 14 deputies has still not formally been approved.

Failure to act with "absolute urgency that the situation demands," the ambassadors continued, "will impact [on] the assessment by the European Commission", which is due to publish its annual progress report on Macedonia next week.

"Governments, and especially their heads, have a special responsibility in times of political crisis",...