Following recent frictions, the European Commission has reaffirmed that respect of the rights of ethnic Albanians would be a prerequisite to accession to the EU.

Below are extracts from an article written by Ekrem Krasniqi and published by EU Observer.com:

The European Commission has told Macedonia it needs clear results on safeguarding the rights of ethnic Albanians as well as undertaking other reforms, before the country can open EU membership negotiations with Brussels.

The EU executive is expected to release its progress report on Macedonia in November [2007], which could set a date for the launch of accession talks.

The Commission remarks come after new friction on Monday [16 July 2007] between the ruling Macedonian party of prime minister Nikola Gruevski and the main ethnic Albanian opposition party. The opposition party left the parliament session accusing the ruling party of breaching a May agreement on minority rights.

Enforcing the rights of ethnic Albanians - which represent one quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million population - is a key political criteria the country must accomplish, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn told Mr Gruevski during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday [17 July 2007]. Rehn's spokesperson, Krisztina Nagy, told Euobserver after the meeting that, "it is essential that the dialogue which has emerged leads now to clear results".

Last May, the Albanian opposition party decided to end a five month boycott of the parliament following a deal with the ruling party on political, cultural and social rights of ethnic Albanians. This harboured hope that country would return to political stability and improve the prospects of further steps toward the EU.

The deal was mediated by EU and US representatives in Skopje. Mr Gruevski and opposition leader Ali Ahmeti agreed on 46 laws on ethnic issues to be included in the so-called Parliamentary Rulebook – such as re-composition of the Interethnic Relations Committee […] and the use of the Albanian language as official language in all state institutions.

But on Monday, hopes for political stability and better inter-ethnic relations received a setback as the law on the use of Albanian language was not included in the parliamentary rulebook by the ruling party, prompting the opposition's lawmakers and two other members of another smaller party of ethnic Albanians to leave the parliament session.

Respecting the 2001 Ohrid Agreement – which ended seven months of fighting between Ali Ahmeti-led guerrilla and Macedonian security forces - and the May Agreement has now become the core of Brussels' conditions for a start of EU membership talks with Macedonia.

Last week the European Parliament said in a resolution that Skopje must implement both agreements, in parallel with other political, judicial and economic reforms before the country would be allowed to open membership negotiations with EU.

All aspects will be examined and analysed in the Commission progress report on Macedonia, expected on 7 November [2007].