VMRO DPMNE party

A group of Macedonian legislators from the parliamentary commission responsible for oversight of the secret police spent two hours at their headquarters on Tuesday but did not raise the illegal surveillance issue.

The vice-president of the opposition Social Democrats, Radmila Sekerinska, has slated the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party for cancelling a key meeting on implementing reforms only half an hour before it was due to start on Monday.

Personnel changes and a boost to the powers of several important state offices are on the table of the inter-party working groups monitored by Brussels, which started work at last week after the government and opposition on Wednesday agreed on the formation of an interim government and early elections to be held on April 24.

The EU Enlargement Commissioner has announced that a deal has been reached between Macedonia's warring political parties.

The breakthrough was announced after midnight on Wednesday, following protracted negotiations with the government and opposition in Skopje.

"Agreement reached by political leaders in the interest of the country and its citizens," Johannes Hahn tweeted.

Commissioner Hahn is expected to arrive on a rescue mission in Macedonia early next week, his office announced.

The visit comes after opposition leader Zoran Zaev on Wednesday said that crisis talks with the government had failed and that the brokered snap election deal was dead in the water.

With nearly all opposition MPs still boycotting parliament, the commission overseeing the secret police - which was intended to be dominated by opposition legislators - got underway, chaired by an MP from the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, Pavle Sazdov, and adopted its rules of procedure.

After optimistic reports of a way out of the political crisis in Macedonia, fresh crisis talks planned for Friday have been cancelled.

Tome Adziev, the head of Macedonia's Lustration Commission, the state office for rooting out former secret police collaborators, told BIRN that he rejected a recent European Commission report that pinpointed "serious shortcomings" in the process.

"It is based on insufficient data," Adziev said.

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.

A large fountain which is part of the freshly revamped central square in the Macedonian capital, was unveiled this week. For 2.4 million euro, the revamp also saw the laying of white and grey cobblestones that form floral patterns on the ground.