MILS NEWS 27/03/96

From: "M.I.L.S." <mils@MILS.SPIC.ORG.MK>

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 27 March 1996

[01] ASSOCIATING WITH EU ON THE BASIS OF OUR OWN RESULTS

'In the negotiations with the EU, the kinds of the economy cooperation, the cooperation in the fields of technology, administration, customs, banking system, science, as well as bringing the Macedonian economy associations closer to the EU member countries, have to be regulated,' said the vice Premier and coordinator of the cooperation between Macedonia and EU, Jane Miljoski on yesterday's press conference. He informed that, besides the Agreement on Cooperation, a finance protocol will also be a subject of discussion. In it a certain amount intended for the construction of infrastructure in Macedonia is fixed. Also, another protocol will be presented in the discussion, regarding the origin of goods, with annexes in which tariff numbers of the products will be precisely stated.

'The misunderstandings that appeared due to the term 'regional cooperation', set as a condition for establishing new relations with the EU, will have to be cleared, and the 'evolution clause' that determines what will follow after the signing of the document will have to be defined during the negotiations,' stressed Miljoski. 'The stand of the Macedonian government is that Macedonia should cooperate with all the countries in the region, but its qualifications for the cooperation with the EU should be measured only by the results achieved in the country itself, without connecting it with the situation in the neighbouring countries,' informed the vice Minister.

Miljoski informed that the negotiations with the EU would begin tomorrow. The second round had been scheduled for April 16 in Skopje. It will be followed by another meeting, which has still not been fixed, and the final discussions are planned to take place on May 28. Miljoski presented his opinion that the final term would most probably be prolonged.

[02] GLIGOROV'S IDEA EMPHASISED

Macedonian President, Kiro Gligorov, received yesterday Max Van Der Stoel, OSCE Commissioner for Minorities and Tore Bogh, the Chief of OSCE Mission to Macedonia. Besides the discussion on the current situation in Macedonia and in the region, President Gligorov repeated his initiative for a comparative study on the situation of minorities in the Balkan countries. He pointed out minorites as one of the most important issues in the democratic development of the countries, and for the stability in the region.

Max Van Der Stoel also met with Macedonian Premier, Branko Crvenkovski.

[03] NEW PHASE IN THE RELATIONS WITH GREECE

'I hope that the coming meeting with Mr. Pangalos will contribute to the improvement of the global relations between Macedonia and Greece. It will probably be followed by bilateral meetings of competent Ministries, which would be a new phase in the already improved relations after the signing of the Interim Accord.' This was stated by the Macedonian Foreign Minister, Ljubomir Frchkovski, for the daily 'Dnevnik'. The preparations for the above mentioned meeting are being made, he emphasized.

It was announced that Minister Frchkovski will leave for Lihtenstein tomorrow to sign the Declaration on Cooperation with EFTA, which should take place on March 30 in Vaduz.

[04] MINISTER POPOVSKI - 'LAW FOR EFFECTIVE CIVIL INITIATIVES'

Macedonian Minister of Justice, Vlado Popovski, yesterday informed the media representatives with the proposals of the government for passing laws on signatures collecting procedure, on referendum and on amandement of the Constitution.

The first proposal (similar to the Swiss model) is based on three principles: direct participation of the citizens in the governing, ensuring the credibility of the signatures and their number. The law proposed reads that 100 voters, a registered political party or a civil association can initiate collecting of signatures; 10 000 signatures are needed to propose a law; 150 000 to schedule a referendum, or to change the Constitution. The initiator should inform the President of the Parliament about the initiative. The reasons of raising the initiative has to be based on the Constitution and it must be precisely formulated. If the initiative is based on the Constitution, it will be submitted to the Premier, who will further submit it to the Ministry of Justice. In case it is not based on the Constitution, the members of the Parliament decide on the initiative. The form for collecting signatures has to contain the purpose for which the referendum is planned, the full name of the voter, his/her address and his/her ID number. The term for collecting signatures for referendum will be 6 months, and for proposing a law three months. The signatures would be given in determined places, in the administration departments of the Ministry of Justice, local offices, and there will be one location for each electoral unit. It is also allowed propaganda to be made only to 100 metres from the signing place.

Minister Popovski mentioned a wide net of 400 places for collecting signatures. he added thet the mechanism of control would include a representative of the initiator in each place, who could be the second to approve the form after the state body in charge.

According to Popovski, this law would provide simple and effective realisation of the citizens initiatives, with no obstacles for the initiators, for their political propaganda nor for their political activities. The government provides a net of signing places with easy access for the citizens, and pays a great portion of the expenses. 'The present initiative of the non-parliament opposition parties is not in accordance with the proposed law and in case the latter is passed, they should respect it, as only in case the civil initiative is of a legal character, the collecting of signatures will legally bound,' said Popovski. He added that the law had been announced two-three weeks ago and is in no connection with the initiative of VMRO - DPMNE and DP, which had been announced afterwards. The laws on referendum and citizens Initiative is also being prepared, and should be finalized in two months, said Popovski.

[05] GOSHEV - 'PANIC REACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT'

Democratic Party President, Petar Gosev, referring to the newest proposals of the government for passing laws on signatures, referendum changing of the Constitution. President of the Party Petar Goshev, on this occasion, said:

'The reaction of the government proves that our initiative and the action of the citizens to collect 150 000 signatures is 100% in agreement with the Constitution and the Laws in effect. The highest ruling circles are reacting panicky.

They are scared by the fact that the action will be successful, which would practically end their arrogant and incompetent governing. This reaction of theirs shows that they are even prepared to make a caricature of the legal system in the country, without considering the consequences for the non-authoritative law institutions, and by making caricatures of the terms 'law', 'right', 'justice' and 'equality'. The top ruling circles definitely proved yesterday that they are interested only in keeping their ruling positions and personal profits.

The Spokesman of the Party, Jovan Manasievski, said the most important result of the action is that the Macedonian citizens had woken up from the apathy and were actively participating in the political life of the country.

Manasievski said the action was being done with an unexpected speed and that it would last shorter than expected, due to the great response of the citizens.

Today's daily 'Dnevnik' informs that over 8 000 signatures have already been collected in Shtip, about 3 000 in Gevgelija, and 2 500 in Ohrid. It is expected that these numbers are doubled in a few days.

[06] GJORGJIEVSKI - 'PUBLICLY MANIFESTED FEAR BY THE GOVERNMENT'

'The publicly manifested fear by the Government is a victory for the opposition. The international community will no longer support a clearly defined totalitarian regime, despite the inaccomplished agreements with this government.

In any normal democratic country, the political parties representatives come out for all civil initiatives,' stated Ljupcho Gjorgjievski, the leader of VMRO - DPMNE for 'Dnevnik'.

The stands of the current government, according to Gjogjievski, announce that it will use all the methods known to a totalitarian country. He does not exclude severe terrorist actions of the government, in order to make the citizens insecure, and to provoke a chaos and a complete de- stabilization of the region, all of that just to remain in the ruling circles. 'The usurpers of the government are between the citizens and the signatures,' said Ljupcho Gjorgjievski for 'Dnevnik'.

[07] PASSING THE LAW ON BROADCASTING NECESSARY

A delegation of the Macedonian Radio and Television, led by the General Manager, Melpomeni Kornetti, was received yesterday by the President of the Parliament Tito Petkovski, and informed him on the program plans and technical development of this media house. It was said that the Law on Broadcasting will help in solveing the problems inside MRT and in the radio and TV stations in Macedonia in general.

The annual reports which will be submitted by this house to the Parliament were stressed as a possibility for the deputies to be directly informed on the situation, and will help the Parliament in making decisions on time.

[08] AVRAMOVIC - FRY IS NOT THE ONLY SUCCESSOR OF SFRY

Dragoslav Avramovic, Governor of the FR Yugoslav National Bank, will lead the Yugoslav delegation in the negotiations with the IMF in Paris, today, informed Belgrade papers yesterday. This was understood as a recognition of the government in Belgrade of the fact that FRY is not the only successor of SFRY.

[09] INCREASING THE PRICE OF ELECTRICITY WILL PROVOKE DISOBEDIENCE OF CITIZENS

The Macedonian Customers Union decided to warn Macedonian government and the 'Elektrostopanstvo' in case the price of the electricity is raised in this very difficult social situation for 90% of the Macedonian citizens. It will result in a civil disobedience, which can neither be predicted, nor stopped'. The announcement said the consumers were not against the 'European price' but are against the 'Somalian standard'. The 'European price' of the electricity will be accepted when the government will create a European standard, concluded the announcement.

[10] POSSIBLE PROHIBITION ON THE IMPORT OF BRITISH MEAT

As 'Makpress' informed, according to sources of the Macedonian Veterinary Administration, Macedonia might prohibit the import of meat from Great Britain after it consults the relevant Office in Paris and after the report on spreading of the illness is made.

'Sitel' Television reported, on the other hand, that the General Manager of the Veterinary Administration, Mihajlo Zoric, said the only way for Macedonian citizens to come in contact with the contaminated British meat is the indirect one, as Macedonia does not directly import meat from this country.

[11] NO 'TIR' FOR THE EXPORT OF FOOD PRODUCTS

EU decided that Macedonian exporters will not have the right to use the 'TIR' carnets for the transport of goods in EU member countries, starting from March 1. This ban will increase the price of the transport and will complicate the realisation of the export contracts. 'Vecer' writes that the reasons for this decision are probably the misuses of some Macedonian exporters in declaring the contents, the origin, and other characteristics of goods exported to the EU.

[12] INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF DRAMA STUDENTS

The faculty of Drama in Skopje will be hosting the 8th International Meeting of the students of the Drama Faculties and Academies 'SKOMRAHI '96'. The program, which will start today, will have two sections: an educational and a performing one. The educational one will consist of lectures of worldly known lecturers in the field of the theatre and the TV, while the performing part will consist of theatre and film performances of selected schools. The participants in the manifestation come from: Logj, Ljubljana, Canterbury, Bratislava, Sofia, Paris, Tirana, Belgrade and Boston.

[13] STUDIES ON DEVELOPING THE PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY

Two studies were promoted yesterday at the Institute for Sociology, Political and Legal Research: 'The Institutions in the Modern Political Democracy' and 'The Effectiveness of the Parliamentary Democracy'. The studies, which were promoted by d-r Slavko Milosavlevski, are 7 works of 8 different authors and present the analyses of the tradition and of the current democracy systems, as well as of the political theory and practice, by using both the western and the Macedonian five years long experience in the development of the parliamentary democracy.

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[14] Skopje And Sofia Are Looking for a Formula to Solve The 'Language Dispute'

('Dnevnik', 27 March 1996)

'Bulgaria has offered at least five variants to overcome the name dispute, but all of them were automatically rejected,' stated Bulgarian Ambassador to Macedonia Angel Dimitrov for 'Dnevnik'.

Fourteen Accords are waiting to be signed due to the misunderstandings that appeared regarding the final clause, where languages in which the documents are written should be stated.

Dimitrov said some of the formulas offered were 'really flexible', without explaining whether any of them contained the term 'Macedonian language'. Macedonian party, as it is well known, insists on the entry that the documents are written in Macedonian and in Bulgarian. 'After the first four Accords were signed, the Bulgarian party changed its attitude and did not allow the term 'Macedonian language' to be used in the rest of them,' said Branko Stojanovski, Head of the International Legal Affairs Department at the Macedonian Foreign Ministry.

The Bulgarian Ambassador claimed that such a move of Sofia had not been a result of any internal-political compromises, but 'a result of the new coordination between the Bulgarian governmental institutions on an issue of a principle significance'. Dimitrov added that 'in the international practice, the precisely stating of languages in which the documents are written is not obligatory'.

Macedonian Foreign Minister, in his recent addressing the Parliamentary Foreign Policy Commission, referred to the current situation as 'an internationally legal absurd'.

'I agree with that saying of Minister Frchkovski, but I think it is also an absurd to require a political recognition of the Macedonian language,' said Dimitrov for 'Dnevnik'.

'Dnevnik' interviewed the most important political groups in Skopje on the possibilities to overcome the 'language dispute' with Sofia. SDSM insists on signing all the accords between Macedonia and Bulgaria in Macedonian and in Bulgarian language, which would be clearly stated in a separate clause. The opinion of the Democratic Party is that it will be achieved with some patience, and VMRO - DPMNE would agree with some kind of a compromise to solve the so- called 'language dispute'. All three parties agree that the blockade is bad for the development of the relations between the two countries.

'We can sign the Accords only in such a way that our attitude towards our own language, as an official one in the communication, directs us,' stated categorically Ilinka Mitreva, the President of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee and a Secretary of International Relations in SDSM.

VMRO - DPMNE find the principle of equi-distance had been violated long ago. They say the government is selective in the relations with the neighbours and acts in favour of creating closeness with Serbia, while there is an 'iron curtain' in the relations with the eastern neighbour (Bulgaria).

'VMRO - DPMNE would agree with a compromise, by which the bilateral relations would be de-blocked. It is stated in the Consular Convention, signed by the previous Foreign Ministers Stevo Crvenkovski and Ljuben Berov, that the document is written in the official languages of the two countries,' said Dosta Dimovska, the vice President of VMRO - DPMNE. She said there were some information that an acceptable option had already been found.

'We have to be patient until the Bulgarian party realizes how absurd the present situation is, which came as a result from their internal political reasons,' the leader of the Democratic Party Petar Goshev stated. 'Macedonia must not allow any violence of its national identity. The clause mentioned has to read that the documents are written in Macedonian and in Bulgarian,' he added.

According to some sources of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry, official Sofia might soon come up with a new compromising formula, which would say that the Accords are written in 'Macedonian language (in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia) and in Bulgarian language (in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria)'.

(end)

mils news 27 March 1996