MACEDONIA WILL NOT BEGIN EU ENTRY TALKS BEFORE 2009
National.
Macedonia is unlikely to begin the talks on EU accession before 2009, unnamed European diplomat said.
The same source told Reuters news agency that the European Commission will not recommend opening EU membership talks with Macedonia in its annual progress report next week because of political problems in the country.
European diplomats said the upcoming report will dash government hopes of starting next year, diplomats said.
"They lost a lot of time this year when (the main ethnic Albanian party) was out of parliament. They still need to work better on political dialogue to have a climate conducive for reforms," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
EU insisted on progress on the rule of law, the rights of the Albanian minority and fighting organized crime and corruption before entry talks could start.
EU officials lament the absence of dialogue with the Albanian community, the politicization of the civil service and the blockage of key judicial reforms.
"Slovenia, which takes over the EU's rotating presidency in January, was keen to advance Macedonia's bid but had concluded it would be counter-productive to ask the Commission for an interim report in mid-2008, one diplomat said.
"If such a report were negative, it would be a very bad signal. We obviously need the candidate countries to do their homework. We can't do it for them," one diplomat said. Instead, Slovenia will try to bring the Western Balkans countries closer to the EU by other means, the diplomat said.
MD: Macedonia should forget the EU for a while, work an make your country strong on your own and in a while the EU will be begging us. Or strengthen the relations with President Sarkozy and his country, France for his new idea, the Mediterranean Union and join them.
[MakFax]
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