Latest News from Macedonia

EU Council Presses Reforms on Macedonia

The EU Council, which met in Luxembourg on Tuesday, urged Macedonia's sparring leaders to focus on resolving the country's ongoing political crisis and start implementing a set of urgent reforms.

Macedonians Plan Noisy Protest to Get Rid of Gruevski

A coalition of opposition parties and NGOs called "Citizens for Macedonia" has called on people to bring metal cooking pots and lids, spoons and everything else that can make noise to make "the loudest protest thus far" against the government of Nikola Gruevski.

Young Woman Self-Immolates in Macedonia's Skopje

A woman aged between 20 and 30 has died after setting herself on fire in Macedonian capital Skopje, local media outlets report.

Witnesses say she poured herself with an inflammable liquid just before setting fire to her body, according to Macedonia's Utrinski vesnik.

Hungarians, Austrians to join Serbian police on south border

Joint mobile patrols of Serbian, Hungarian and Austrian police forces will be deployed along the border between Serbia and Macedonia.

The Beta agency is reporting that this will happen next week.

Macedonia Busts Migrant Trafficking Ring

Police found some 160 migrants who were hidden in a house used as the gang's base during the raid in the village of Vaksince, near Macedonia's northern border with Serbia, on Saturday.

Defiant Macedonia PM Vows to Retain Power

Ahead of crucial EU-brokered talks with the opposition aimed at defusing the political crisis in Macedonia, Gruevski gave a defiant speech to his VMRO DPMNE party supporters on Saturday in which he hinted that he did not intend to step down from office.

Gazprom claims thar EU "offered Russia to build pipeline bypassing Serbia"

Gazprom claims thar EU "offered Russia to build pipeline bypassing Serbia"

Ivica Dacic says he learned "from Russian colleagues" that EU officials "offered Russia to build a gas pipeline dubbed Eastern Ring."

This pipeline would go through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia - bypassing Serbia.

 

Macedonia Leaders Pledge to Honour Election Deal

After an hour of talks in Skopje, Macedonia's political leaders agreed to honour the snap election deal brokered on June 2 during the visit to Skopje of the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, as a basis for future talks.

Hahn has extracted an agreement on a transition period leading up to snap elections that must take place by next April.

Turkey cheaper than Europe but cars, booze, tobacco remain expensive

Turkey is more expensive than a few European countries but it remains cheaper than a majority of the continent, according to a new comparative purchasing power parity index released June 19 by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜ?K).

However, car prices stood above European levels, as did the prices of alcoholic beverages, tobacco and consumer electronics.

Macedonia Awaits Fresh Round of Crisis Talks

The meeting, which comes after last week's failure to strike a deal about a transitional government at the talks in Brussels, is expected to gather leaders of the four main political parties as well as the EU and US ambassadors to the country, Aivo Orav and Jess Baily.

Turkish Halkbank opens new branch in Macedonia

Halkbank, one of Turkey's biggest banks and a state-run lender, on June 17 opened its 33rd branch in the Cair municipality of the Macedonian capital Skopje.

"Good that Serbia is not closing borders to migrants" - UN

Serbia is a democratic country in the heart of Europe and should not close its borders, UNHCR Representative in Serbia Hans Friedrich Schodder has said.

He added that it was "good that the country is not planning to close its border with Macedonia."

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