The Macedonian Government and the Ministry of Interior are trying to silence the citizens and their constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful gatherings and expression of opinion through organizing public protests and rallies. A few days ago, a scandalous proposal for amendments to the Law on Public Rallies arrived at the Parliament, which suggest illogical and almost impossible conditions for the citizens and the organizers of public rallies and protests, Kurir reports. According to Kurir, the Government and the Ministry of Inter…
European leaders are engaged in discussions over whether to allow Macedonia and Albania to open EU accession talks. French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly stands opposed to accession talks until his request for a serious reform and deepening of the EU, as well as changes to the enlargement process, are accepted. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that his country is opposed to accession talks for Albania, but would leave some room for opening talks with Macedonia – the decoupling option, which is also supported by Spain and Den…
Macedonia’s tourism has become more uncompetitive during the last two years, according to the new Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019 released by the World Economic Forum. Compared to the last report in 2017, the country’s ranking declines by 12 positions (from 89th to 101st) out of 140 countries reviewed in the report. The numbers in the new report are disastrous: Macedonia was the only country in the subregion to decline in T&T competitiveness (89th to 101st). The nation’s business environment (40th to 84th), hu…
The AIMP Player is a fancy, free and fully featured audio media player and also offers Macedonian language support. The AIMP audio player can do more than just play music: with the AIMP Player you can, for example, also stream Internet radio, download CD covers, set tags or manage your entire song library and grab CD tracks and copy them to your computer. An alarm and shutdown function are also part of the player. In addition, the program of course dominates all standard functions of a media player such as create playlists and pro…
The Macedonian Central Bank NBRM says finally yes for online payment services like PayPal. First announcements were made already in 2017 as we reported - see Link here . While the rest of the world launches rockets into space and brings them back in one piece, talks about wide usage of electric cars or implanting computers into your brain, there is Macedonia, that still has issues with online payments. It seems that at least for now Macedonia in a recent decision by the Central Bank Authority, will allow citizens and companies to …
The Macedonian community in Albania issued a list of demands to the Government, through its MAEI party. MAEI held a congress in Korca and declared that it demands the introduction of the Macedonian language as the official language in each municipal unit where the Macedonians amount to at least 10 percent of the population and that Macedonian minority rights should apply across the country, not just in the three south-eastern municipalities where they are most numerous. The party also demands a redrawing of the municipal borders and t…
The reigning EHF Champions League winners from Macedonia, RK Vardar Skopje has opened the new season in the best possible way with a victory in Montpellier, the french team won the Champions League a year before in 2018. The champion RK Vardar Skopje defeated Montpellier 33:31 (16:17) in the first match of the VELUX handball EHF Champions League 2019/20. The French team had the lead as the final of the game approached, but the defending champion was able to turn the match around. Even with one player less, as german import player …
The young macedonian marvel Elif Elmas joins italian Serie A club SSC Napoli. The 19-year-old midfielder Elmas had been sold to Napoli for 16 million euros ($17.9 million). The Istanbul club stated that Napoli would pay a maximum bonus of 1.5 million euros to Fenerbahçe upon the club's success and the player's performance in his new club. In addition, Fenerbahçe could see another bonus of up to 1.5 million euros if Elmas signs to another club in the future. Elmas signed a five-year contract with about 1.3 million euros pe…
After exactly one month, the Macedonian Sun, the symbol of the first flag of independent Macedonia from 1992 to 1995, will no longer be seen in public use, because it will be removed from public places, and all the monuments that point to ancient Hellenic history and civilization will be appropriately marked, in accordance with the Prespa Agreement. The Government told “Sloboden pecat” that the corrections will be completed within the stipulated time limit, but do not provide details on how the corrections will be made, how will the p…
UNESCO gave the Macedonian authorities a deadline until February next year to implement the recommendations for the protection of the natural resources, to safe Ohrid as a cultural heritage, otherwise it will be proclaimed as an endangered area. On the other hand, Albania progressed. The (private) Facebook profile "Albania Unesco" reported on Friday: "Ohrid region becomes the fourth Albanian property inscribed in the Unesco World Heritage List. It joins Butrint, Berat & Gjirokaster and the Ancient Beech Forests of R…
German low-cost air carrier Eurowings launched on Monday flights linking Macedonia's beautiful and historic Ohrid to Germany's Stuttgart, later a second new route will start connecting Ohrid with Dusseldorf on July 17th. The Ohrid-Stuttgart flights will be serviced twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, during the summer months, Eurowings said in a statement. The Ohrid-Dusseldorf flights will be operated just once a week, on Wednesdays, the low-cost air carrier added. Eurowings is part of Lufthansa Group. The company has…
A court in Hungary refused to extradite the fugitive former prime minister of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski. According to local macedonian news portal a1on, the verdict was read out on Thursday morning in the presence of Nikola Gruevski, former premier of Macedonia. The hearing was closed to the media, but the decision was publicly announced. Macedonia had requested its former Prime Minister Gruevski’s extradition from Hungary in late 2018, to face justice in his home country. Gruevski, who was sentenced to two years in priso…
The Prime Minister of Macedonia Zoran Zaev announced the reshuffle of the government including six ministers, the local macedonian media reported on Sunday. Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev unveiled the names of the new ministers for agriculture, environment, culture, local self-government and political system and relations between the communities. These include Trajan Dimkovski (Minister of Agriculture), Naser Nuredini (Minister of Environment), Hysni Ismaili (Minister of Culture), Goran Milevski (local self-government) and…
The possibility of assuming the role of strategic investor in the construction of the bulgarian Belene nuclear power plant appears to be in the works in Macedonia, following the invitation of Bulgaria, which was published in the Official Journal of the EU, to attract a strategic investor to this project - greek financed media Nezavisen in Skopje reports (part of Greek IBNA - Independent Balkan News Agency). According to the information that has been released, it seems that initially interest had been expressed, and that detailed analy…
Greek opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that his New Democracy party will work to reduce the damage caused by the Prespa treaty. ND is expected to take over the Greek Government later this year, as polls ahead of the general elections give it a solid lead over the leftist SYRIZA party. Asked about whether his late father, former Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, who was toppled after he was seen as too lenient on the “Macedonian issue”, would have signed the Prespa treaty, he answered “no”. The reason why the trea…
Macedonian handball champion Vardar again qualified for Champions League final after knocking out Spain’s Barcelona 29-27 in Kologne on Thursday evening. In Sunday’s final, the “red and black” team will play against Hungarian Veszprém. Vardar made an incredible turn in the match against Barcelona and scored a victory over the favorite Spanish champion (29:27) in the second semifinal of the Final Four tournament of the handball Champions League. Although the Macedonian champion was trailing by 7 in the second half, Roberto GarcÃa Parro…
Macedonia says fighter jets from neighboring Greece have carried out NATO-linked test overflights of its territory as part of the country’s process of joining the alliance. The defense ministry said Tuesday’s two flights tested radar and communications coverage of Macedonia. Macedonia has no fixed-wing military aircraft, and NATO has a program to protect the airspace of members that do not have sufficient means of their own. Macedonia is set to become NATO’s 30th member by the end of this year, after NATO member Greece dropped…
An early Christian era basilica was found during construction work on the new Stip – Kocani express way. The find was made near the village of Ziganci, and experts from the Stip museum have begun work to locate and preserve the valuable finds. We have an extensive record of archaeological finds dating to the same period in this area, and we hope that we have uncovered a larger complex, said Mitko Sterjov from the Stip museum. According to Sterjov, the find should not delay construction given that the crews can relocate on the …
Macedonia’s Health Ministry Commission for Infectious Diseases declared on Tuesday a measles epidemic on the whole territory of the country. According to Vladimir Mikikj, an epidemiologist with the Commission, the decision was made in order to control and prevent the further spread of measles, decrease the number of new infections and also prevent severe forms of this disease. Talking about some of the new measures, Mikikj said, unvaccinated children would not be admitted to kindergartens, and the vaccination age is to be lowered …
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