Full Transcript of the interview 00.01 On the reforms needed for EU integration First of all it is the judiciary reform in order the administrative capacity to be more efficient and to be able to implement the rule of law in every field in our society. Second is the increasing the capacity of the public prosecutor in order to be more efficient to fight the corruption until now many of the previous governments have considered this fight of against the corruption that is has to do with laws and rhetoric , but we want to provide concrete cases in these respectthird very important thing is to improve the economic situation and the with the 35 of our population being unemployed can not bet happiest land in the world we want to improve the economic atmosphere in order to attract foreign investors in our country and to work for better every day living standard of our citizensand last but not the leastfourthpreservation of upgrading the model of multiethnic democracy till now we are proud to announce that Macedonia has shown to the region but also to the Europe that we really succeeded together with the European assistance to build this kind of multiethnic functional democracy. We are proud of that. 01.32 On the political problems in Macedonia, especially dialogue with the Albanian opposition I think that we are very happy that elections went very smoothly and the formation of the new government went very smoothly. What didn’t go smoothly was the changing of the roles Mainly concerning the DUI ( a former ruling Albanian party ) that never had the experience of being in the opposition and now they are in the opposition. And we are trying our best to convince them that they should preserve their political capital that they have earned in the previous 4-5 years. And that having also 14 mayors means also being in a position and being at the local level part of the governing process. However our sincere intention at the very beginning after the elections was to include both the e Albanian parties inside the government and we tried our best. But we didn’t succeed because of the very strong tension that exist between the leadership of the both parties and we were not capable to overcome this tension. But however with the direct contacts with them especially with MR Ahmeti, our PM met him 3 times. I think it was the best possible sign that the new government really wants to have the direct communication with every relevant political party in the country. And therefore we will continue with direct communication in order to preserve the normal and calm atmosphere in the inter-party relations in order not to give pretext to anyone to act in a manner that we do not want to see. 03.32 On the issues being discussed with DUI – Albanian opposition party We discussed with the opposition in the respect of the police law. It is a very important law that should be adopted in the parliament and then implemented in order to fully satisfied the OA in order this decentralization to be efficient in the security reforms. However I think that the problem that some parties (exp. DUI, SDSM I LDP) change their position related to this whether they are in the government or in the opposition. Now the paradox is that we proposed the same police law that was drafted by DUI and social-democrats. Then they agreed that this draft was a good law with quality and now when they came in the opposition they are saying that this draft doesn’t satisfy them. I think that they intend that they want to sell their support for something else and part of the social-democrats agreed to support this draft-law and part of them disagree and now we are discussing to convince all of them that for the benefit for them and for all parties would be great if we adopt this police law, and we also expect for that to be applaud by the EU. 05.11 On the expectations from the EC Progress Report of 8 November We can not predict what is going to be in this report into details, but in short we expect appreciation for all that Macedonia has done in the previous period of time: implementing the Ohrid Agreement, preserving and upgrading of this model of multiethnic democracy and starting with the judiciary reforms, with the laws that at leas that the previous government has accepted. Now the new government has a sincere intention to continue these reforms and we expect also supporting for those our aims but of course we also expect critic, or the thing that haven’t been done until now, but we will welcome some criticism with good intention and we will consider them seriously and work on that. 06.10 On the Macedonian expectations for EU entry talks date We have an ambitious plan… hope that next year during the German presidency of the EU to be granted a date for the negotiations, decisions to be taken concerning the date. The date could come later, but I thing for us it would be very important to have this date which would increase really also the capacities of Macedonian institutions in respect of the reforms. Second, I think that the EU is an attractive engine that moves things forward in ever society in eastern Europe, and of course also in Macedonia. It’s something that unites all peoples regardless of their ethnic background, culture, ethnic, political and religious background. We will try our best to deliver performances in the fields I mentioned: police law, economic reforms, fight against corruption in order to make easier for the EU, EC to take a decision on the negotiations date. Afterwards… it took to other countries for example approximately 6 years to prepare themselves, from starting the negotiations till being able to enter the EU. We are smaller country and if we try our best it maybe will take less then 6 years from starting the negotiations to entering the EU. So those are our plans. 07.51 On the three Balkan NATO aspirants: who is doing better? It is not up to us to make this graduation who is best and who is not, but I thing that we really invest in this solidarity in the group, so everyone to support the other and the experiences in which we are better, for example concerning the public support: Macedonia has the 88 % of the population supportive of the NATO integration, in Croatia this support is lower… and then we can exchange and give our experiences how we have achieved this. We can learn from their economic reforms… how they achieved something better than Macedonia; We are very satisfied with the partnership with Albania and Croatia and especially we are satisfied that this partnership was sponsored by the US and now recently a draft-law concerning the NATO enlargement was proposed by few US congressman and we thing that it was a really a clear supportive message for all of us including Georgia in these respect and entering of this Adriatic charter of this group into NATO I think it will be an added value to the NATO capacity and to the security in the region. And we are glad to announce that from a country that used to be the recipient of military assistance several years ago, today Macedonia is a country, although modestly, but still provides security assistance for peacekeeping mission abroad (Iraq, Afghanistan and in ALTHEA in Bih). That is one reason plus why we expect reasonably to be invited in NATO membership in the next summit in 2008. 09.48 On Kosovo status talks and potential risks for the region I think that certain risks always exists and it’s also ain this respect concerning the final status of Kosovo something that is very sensitive to the Kosovo population it’s sensitive to the Belgradegovernment. I think that international community is aware of that. At the same time we want to underline that the crises capacity in the region has dramatically decreased in the last few years and this is the chance to be used. We really want the issue to be solved in a manner which will contribute tot the stability not to undermine the stability of the region. I thing it’s a great challenge but also a great chance to achieve this very soon. What we believe is that the sooner the final decision on Kosovo is going to be taken, the better, because the endless prolongation of the difficult decision is not going to create better space for more ideal solution. 11.02 On Kosovo status talks eventual influence in Macedonia’s internal stability We invest in Macedoniaas a multiethnic model in order to show to our people regardless of their ethnic background that there is no reason, there is no pretext to act in a way out of the state institutions in order to achieve some political goals. What is Macedoniaconcerned I thing that we will succeed in producing stability in the country but also producing the stability in the region. We expect the same thing to happen in Kosovo. We really insist on Kosovo politicians … we are glad that we have our approval of MR Ceku, who came several weeks ago to visit our PM that they will really as moderate as possible try to manage the situation with their supporters. At the same time we ask the KFOR to increase their activities in order the intelligence information to be more dynamically exchanged in order to be more capable to act in a preventive manner if necessary. Therefore I think that we will not be faced with some security challenges. 12.30 On the EU debate on enlargement fatigue Weare not the happiest government to be in a mandate in a period of time when this uncertain European or euro-sceptic debate concerning the enlargement is ongoing particularly in some European countries which re very important. But of course we think that after the elections in Francerenewed energy is going to come to this European debate and that the Europeis going more able to overcome these difficulties. And of course from the economic point of view we are satisfied that economic situation in Europeis also gradually improving and that is a factor that will also positively influence the feeling of the people concerning the emigrants, concerning the newcomers, concerning this sensitivity on enlargement. And finally Macedoniais a country with a population like Pariswithout suburbs that is not an entity that could disturb any absorption capacity of the EU. We are happy to be small, and we will try to use this argument as well of course satisfying all necessary criteria to come closer to the EU and finally to become member of the European family as soon as possible. 14.07 What if EU constitution will fail again? Being granted a date for negotiations doesn’t mean being a member, so we are asking for a date, because now being a candidate country without a date (for negotiations) is like arranging a wedding without music, and we can not start with the wedding. I think that we have a very ambitious plan to fight for our right on the date and really our arguments will be concrete results and then I think this will be a very good opportunity for the EU as well to see how much are we prepared to go forward in the negotiations in implementation of every criteria that is required for the membership. Therefore starting the negotiations could not be automatically be related to the constitutional (EU) reform into the EU. Of course the mood and the atmosphere could be better if the constitutional reforms taking faster pace but even if this reforms are not so fast I thing will be no problem to start with the negotiations. 15.26 Cutaways, Milososki in Brusselswith the Macedonian delegation 15.47 End of transmission | 
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