Peter Vanhoutte

Work on reforming the media in Macedonia in time for June's early elections appears to have halted, as the EU mediator in the talks on the crisis in Macedonia, Peter Vanhoutte, confirmed that some political parties were uninterested in continuing talks.

Some members of Macedonian Electoral Commission, the DIK, are disputing their chief's assessment that the country cannot organize credible elections by April 24, the date for early polls that was initially set in the EU-brokered agreement to end the crisis but has now become the subject of dispute.

Macedonia's Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, and opposition Social Democrat, leader, Zoran Zaev, on Tuesday agreed on the names of the experts who will be appointed to serve on the electoral commission, DIK.

The negotiating team from the ruling VMRO DPMNE party of embattled Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski left the EU-sponsored talks on Tuesday after the opposition Social Democrats' leader Zoran Zaev described most of the mainstream media as his enemies.

A deadline for the Macedonian government and the opposition parties to iron out their differences on a package of media reforms expires on Friday.

The stalled talks between the country's warring government and opposition are set to resume later on Monday or on Tuesday as EU mediator Peter Vanhoutte is expected to return to Macedonia after spending the weekend in consultations with officials from Brussels.

The EU need to be more proactive in solving the crisis in Macedonia and abandon its "technocratic approach", speakers told a conference called "The potential internal instability in the Republic of Macedonia" on Wednesday in Belgrade.

As the informal Monday deadline for a deal on several key urgent reform priorities expired, the EU delegation to Macedonia said that it was still trying to bring the two sides closer to an agreement to end the political crisis that has gripped the country.

"We cannot say yet that the deal is dead," a source from the EU delegation to Macedonia told BIRN under condition of anonymity.

After he warned Macedonian leaders against stalling an agreement on reforms, the pro-government media have targeted the EU mediator, Peter Vanhoutte.

EU mediator Peter Vanhoutte warned on Wednesday that the EU-brokered crisis agreement will be dead if the Macedonian government and opposition fail to agree on key reforms by the end of this weekend.