Zoran Zaev

The European Union is ready to arbitrate in the worsening dispute in Macedonia over claims of mass eavesdropping by the government, the EU's foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, and Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, said in Brussels on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski on Monday said the opposition's latest slew of wiretapped telephone conversations were aimed at sowing discord in the ranks of the government.

In new recordings that the opposition Social Democrats presented earlier on Monday, the minister is heard slating Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's policies as mad and irresponsible.

Opposition leader Zoran Zaev on Monday released the latest in a series of covert tapes, which he said were recordings of conversations between Finance Minister Zoran Stavrevski and Gordana Jankuloska that proved that the government was lying about country's finances being stable.

Nine new wiretapped telephone conversations were published on Friday by the Macedonian opposition Social Democrat leader, Zoran Zaev, which allegedly show the Prime Minister telling a minister to raze a building owned by a political enemy.

More than 100 journalists in Macedonia have been lately subject to illegal wiretapping, Zoran Zaev, the leader of the opposition Social Democrats has argued.

Over a hundred Macedonian journalists were wiretapped, including the editors of pro-government media as well as journalists that critique the government, opposition Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev announced on Wednesday while unveiling his fourth political "bombshell".

Macedonia's opposition Social Democratic party, SDSM, published seven more conversations on Friday, which the party said showed the arrest of opposition politician Ljube Boskoski was a setup.

Ljube Boskoski, a former Interior Minister and former leader of the United for Macedonia party, was arrested on June 6th 2011, one day after the general elections of that year.

On his first visit to Macedonia, the EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood policy and Enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn said opposition claims about government surveillance of thousands of citizens need investigating.  

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski declined on Monday to comment directly on the latest press conference of the opposition Social Democrats SDSM on Sunday, where five recordings were presented involving discussions between state officials, judges and a pro-government news editor on appointments of judges as well as court cases and prosecutors' work.

Five conversations were published on Sunday at a press conference of the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, involving discussions between top state officials, judges and a pro-government news editor about the appointment of judges as well as court cases and prosecutors' work.