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MILS NEWS 96-09-13Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <[email protected]>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 13 September, 1996[01] MACEDONIA WILL NOT JOIN NATO IN THE FIRST ROUND'Macedonia will always be taken into account, but at the moment it is too early to include the country in the first group of countries that will become NATO members, as the process of developing the mutual relations has started only a year ago. Certainly, intensive cooperation within the framework of the 'Partnership for Peace' Programme will continue with those countries that will not be included in the first group.' This was said, according to Macedonian Radio, by the Assistant Secretary General of NATO Von Moltke in talks with Macedonian journalists. Von Moltke informed them on the new strategic concept of the Alliance for building a new European security architecture, and attempts to include Russia in it, as well. According to him, NATO will not allow separations of Europe and new spheres of influence, which is why it will welcome all the countries of the old continent.Unofficially, Macedonian Radio reported that the first group of countries to join NATO would consist of Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia. NATO Assistant Secretary General Von Moltke denied this information during the talks with journalists, explaining that the decision would be made in December 1996 at the NATO ministerial meeting. It is also expected the first group of countries - future NATO members - to be invited to the NATO Summit at the beginning of 1997. [02] SMITH: 'PRESENCE OF MACEDONIA IN EUROPE SHOULD INCREASE''The fact that Macedonia is coming closer to the EU means that conditions necessary for its associate membership in the West European Union Assembly are being created,' President of the Assembly Dadley Smith said yesterday in the talks with Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski. During the meeting, which was attended by Ministers Ljubomir Frchkovski and Blagoj Handziski as well, Macedonian party had expressed gratitude for the support this institution had been giving to Macedonia in the processes of joining the international institutions. Opinions on the situation in the region and the relations of Macedonia with its neighbours were also presented.The WEU Assembly delegation yesterday met with Macedonian parliamentarian groups, as well. Macedonian Radio reported that, despite the different stands, all parties had emphasized the fact that the place of Macedonia is in Europe, i.e. in its institutions and collective security systems. Sir Dadley Smith said the presence of Macedonia should increase in Europe both in the political and economic life, and especially in the WEU, which is the base of NATO in the old continent. He added that Macedonia should be allowed to enjoy all the rights and privileges that some countries of the Eastern block have already been given, as WEU now includes Central European and Baltic countries. It is expected for the Assembly representatives to have a meeting with Macedonian President Gligorov today. [03] MACEDONIAN STAND ON FORMER SFRY SUCCESSIONDuring the fourth round of separate meetings with former Yugoslav republics representatives, European mediator Sir Arthur Wots met with Macedonian delegates in Brussels the day before yesterday to discuss the Memorandum he had offered. The media reported that Macedonian delegation had presented their stand that former SFRY succession issues should be solved according to the international law and to the opinion of the Arbitrage Commission for Former Yugoslavia. Macedonian Foreign Ministry reported that it is expected a meeting of all countries-successors of former SFRY with the special negotiator Sir Wots to take place in October.[04] GREEK PRIME MINISTER SIMITIS CRITICIZED FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH 'SKOPJE''Simitis should not have allowed to be understood that negotiations with 'Skopje' might result in a complex name of that country,' 'New Democracy' leader Militiadis Evert had stated. Agency 'Reuters' reported that Evert had criticized Greek Prime Minister Simitis for allowing a national issue to be entrusted to a single mediator, i.e. to Cyrus Vance. Meanwhile, the nationalists leader Samaras, in an interview for TV 'Antenna', said that Greece must not accept a complex name regarding the 'Skopje' issue, but that it should 'via well-known diplomatic channels continue the efforts to have 'Skopje' joined to the new Yugoslavia'.[05] MACEDONIAN-BULGARIAN TALKS IN SKOPJE BEGANA delegation of the Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Ministry, led by Vice Minister Ivan Hristov, arrived yesterday in Skopje for a two-days visit. Macedonian Foreign Ministry officially announced that opinions regarding the multilateral cooperation would be exchanged in the talks, with special attention to the forthcoming 51 Session of the UN General Assembly. The bilateral cooperation and possibilities for their improvement will also be subject of talks. Ivan Hristov is expected to meet with Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ljubomir Frchkovski today.[06] PROTOCOL ON THE EAST-WEST CORRIDOR ACCEPTEDMacedonian media reported that a meeting of Bulgarian, Albanian and Macedonian Transport Ministries representatives had ended yesterday in Ohrid. It was attended by the American governmental Trade and Development Agency (TDA), and the subject discussed was the transport corridor East- West. Deals with 'Behtel International' company from San Francisco were agreed on, and it should prepare a study which would be an economic justifying of the corridor construction, including all the remarks and suggestions of the countries involved. The Macedonian party had submitted suggestions for corridor projects, and for accomplishing three constructions: railroad section Kumanovo - Bulgarian border, highway Titov Veles - Prilep via Babuna mountain, and transit road Miladinovci - Tetovo. It was pointed out that railroad section Kichevo - Ohrid should be accomplished in order to complete the railroad line. During the meeting, attention was paid to the Draft System of Organization of Trans-Regional Centre in Sofia.[07] MACEDONIAN-ROMANIAN AGREEMENT ON CULTURE COOPERATION SIGNEDMinister of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia Slobodan Unkovski and his Romanian counterpart Georgija Zank yesterday in Bucharest had signed a Programme for Cultural Cooperation between the two countries in 1996-1998. 'Makpress' agency reported that the two Ministries would support the exchange of music, theatre, ballet and folklore performances.[08] ALBANIAN PUPILS IN KOSOVO ARE RETURNING TO SCHOOLSRadio Tirana reported that Albanian pupils in Kosovo were returning to their primary and secondary schools and that there were no problems with the Serbian police. As 'Makfax' agency reported the information, the pupils began to go back to schools even before the Agreement was signed by the Serbian President Slobodan Miloshevic and Kosovo Albanians leader Ibrahim Rugova.[09] MACEDONIA WITH 123 MUNICIPALITIESMacedonian Parliament passed the Law on Territorial Dividing of the Republic late last night, by which Macedonia has been divided into 123 municipalities. During yesterday's session, about 300 amendments were submitted. Most of them required removal of settlements from one municipality to another, and some of them suggested establishing of new municipalities. Several amendments, mainly technical, were passed, as well as the proposals for three new municipalities: Cheshinovo (Kochani area), Shuto Orizari and Gjorche Petrov (Skopje area).The parliamentarian group of Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM) yesterday got another member. Namely, Liberal Party member Dragan Mitevski, owner of a private enterprise 'Mit-komerc' from Kumanovo, had joined SDSM because, as A-1 Television cited him, Liberal Party was becoming too close with non-parliamentarian opposition parties, with which stands he did not agree. A-1 TV also informed that Parliament President Tito Petkovski should make a decision for the local elections date on Monday. According to unofficial sources from SDSM, they would be scheduled for 17 November. Macedonian Parliament will continue its 53rd session today and discuss the Law on the City of Skopje. [10] DZAFERI: 'COMPLETING THE UNITARIAN STATE''Makpress' agency yesterday reported a statement of Arben Dzaferi, leader of the Party for Democratic Prosperity of Albanians, that the Law on Territorial Dividing of Macedonia was a political project by which a unitarian state is completed. 'Doubts about whose is a municipality or Macedonia in general had revealed Macedonian chauvinism, characterized by the attitude that Macedonia belongs to Macedonians and that a municipality can not belong to anybody else,' he said, adding that PDPA considered the doubts about albanization of municipalities in west Macedonia fully excluded.[11] MNP: 'TERRITORIAL DIVIDING - RESULT OF BARGAINING'Macedonian National Party (MNP) estimated the Law on Territorial Dividing of Macedonia as proposed by the government as extremely unfavourable for the Macedonian people interests. Their announcement said that the Law was a result of bargaining between PDP and SDSM, by which SDSM had sacrificed the interests of Macedonians who live in western part of the country only to remain on power. MNP, being a party with a national programme, called on all parliamentarian and non-parliamentarian parties to reach a consensus for the vital interests of the Republic of Macedonia in order to prevent it from being divided up.MILS SUPPLEMENT[12] 'Privatization Stopped in 700 Enterprises'('Nova Makedonija', 13 September, 1996)Macedonian Constitutional Court decided to abolish the Instructions for the way the transformation of enterprises with social capital designed by the Privatization Agency. Does it mean that privatization process in 700 enterprises is going to be stopped? It involves 350 enterprises in agriculture, 150 of which the transformation procedure had already began in, plus 200 others. The decision followed the temporal ban on applying of above mentioned Instructions, brought by the Constitutional Court in July, 1996, which was initiated by the management team of 'Kolektiv', share-holding company from Skopje. The most interesting matter is, however, whether this decision is going to be applied retroactively, i.e. for those enterprises that were privatized before. It would mean that all of them would be revoked. Therefore, we asked for an explanation from the Constitutional Court Spokesman Jugoslav Milenkovik. 'The decision of the Constitutional Court will not be retroactively applied. It will come in force on the day of its publishing in the 'Official Register of the Republic of Macedonia'. So, all the enterprises in which the privatization has been accomplished, need not to worry that things would go back to the beginning. The decision will apply only to those enterprises in which transformation process has began to be realized according to the Agency Instructions. They should stop privatization processes carried out following the Instructions and continue the process only by applying the Law on Privatization.' Above mentioned Instructions included all privatization procedures and criteria according to which competitive offers for sale have been evaluated. They were designed following the request of the Government last year for the Privatization Agency to be more open for the public and to reduce the rights of discretion. We asked Privatization Agency Spokesman Ms. Olga Mihajlova - Tikvarovska to explain us how will the Constitutional Court decision affect the transformation process in the remaining 700 enterprises. 'The decision has still not arrived officially in the Agency. Therefore, each statement made before that should be considered with reserve. As the media had reported, we realized that the decision is an abolishing one, and not a revoking one. We should first remind that the Instructions for Applying the Models and Transformation Procedures were designed by the Agency according to the experiences we had from applying the 'step by step' model, legally established in the country. The Instructions were made in order to made the Agency work more transparent,' Tikvarovska said. One can conclude that the Instructions had existed before they were officially published, but after their public presentation it became more clear how did the Agency organize, carry out and control the transformations of the enterprises. At that point, the criteria for evaluation of offers for management buy-off model (by issuing shares for additional investments) were included. 'The Agency,' Tikvarovska said, 'will not apply the Instructions in future and will strictly respect the Constitutional Court decisions.' So, the Agency will work according to procedures and models stated in the Law on Privatization. (end)mils news 13 September, 1996Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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