EU to DUI: Get Lost!

Under different circumstances, the EU could have really caused problems by backing the DUI in their transparent power grab in aid of patronage jobs doled out by the government of Macedonia. Someone in the EU had their thinking caps on and decided that the best course of action was stability rather than destabilisation ... for now.

EU urges DUI to act as constructive opposition in Macedonia
(SETimes.com)


18/08/2006

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- EU representative to Macedonia Erwan Fouere called on the largest ethnic Albanian party in the country, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), to accept the role of constructive opposition. Fouere added that even in opposition, DUI could continue its positive activities and encourage dialogue between the government and the opposition. Fouere rejected DUI's claims that the party's exclusion from the new government violates the Ohrid Framework Agreement. He stressed that while agreement stipulates the mechanism for decision-making on both national and local levels, and guarantees the protection of minority rights, it contains no provisions regarding the composition of the government.

Also Thursday, President Branko Crvenkovski marked the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which ended six months of fighting in 2001. At a reception, Crvenkovski said that since the agreement, Macedonia has become 'a country of strong interethnic trust and tolerance, a candidate for full-fledged membership in the EU and NATO'. (Dnevnik - 18/08/06; MIA, Makfax, A1 TV - 17/08/06"