Opportunities and pitfalls of the negotiation process

On January 31, 2015, a new, most difficult phase of the deepest political crisis that the country has faced in the past, almost 24 years of independence and autonomy began in Macedonia. This comment of the Macedonian Center for European Education comes at a time when the third round of talks between the government and the opposition (the four largest political parties in Macedonia) under the auspices of EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn is not yielding results. The only trophy of the negotiation process so far is the jointly set date for possible early parliamentary elections in April 2016, but even this success is conditional on the formation of a transitional government that will organize the elections so that they can be fair, free and accepted by all participants in the process. Since we appreciate that the negotiation process does not give adequate results, nor is it set in principle in accordance with European values, in this document we will analyze several key issues for reaching a just solution.