Zoran Zaev

The head of Macedonia's opposition SDSM party vowed that the socialists will not take part in the early general election on April 24 if they are on scheduled.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski submitted his resignation to the Speaker of Parliament Trajko Veljanoski on Friday.

The resignation of Gruevski is part of the political agreements reached between the main political parties of Macedonia in June and July last year with the mediation of the EU.

European Commissioner Johannes Hahn will visit Macedonia on Friday to assess the progress in implementing the EU-brokered agreement for resolving the country's long-running political crisis. 

Macedonia's Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, and opposition Social Democrat, leader, Zoran Zaev, on Tuesday agreed on the names of the experts who will be appointed to serve on the electoral commission, DIK.

The negotiating team from the ruling VMRO DPMNE party of embattled Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski left the EU-sponsored talks on Tuesday after the opposition Social Democrats' leader Zoran Zaev described most of the mainstream media as his enemies.

Macedonia's four main political parties on Friday reached consensus on power sharing in the period until the snap elections now confirmed for April 24 of next year.

Embattled Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and opposition Social Democrats leader Zoran Zaev held marathon talks that went on into the early hours of Friday, finally reaching agreement about the stalled issue of the appointment of interim ministers from the ranks of the opposition who will hold their posts until the April elections.

As the informal Monday deadline for a deal on several key urgent reform priorities expired, the EU delegation to Macedonia said that it was still trying to bring the two sides closer to an agreement to end the political crisis that has gripped the country.

"We cannot say yet that the deal is dead," a source from the EU delegation to Macedonia told BIRN under condition of anonymity.

Commissioner Hahn told the media in Macedonia that despite the "bad day" of talks between government and opposition parties, he remained optimistic that a deal on the appointment of new ministers would be done.

Talks between the government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the opposition were set to resume Tuesday.

The opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, said they were withdrawing from the talks after the National Prosecutors Council on Wednesday gave the green light to just seven out of the 14 proposed deputy special prosecutors who will investigate alleged mass illegal wiretapping by the Macedonian authorities.