May 5 (SeeNews) - Enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn has expressed once again EU's support for Macedonia's newly elected parliament speaker, ethnic Albanian Talat Xhaferi, and called for a swift formation of government and advancing EU reform agenda.
"The Parliament must now be allowed to work unhindered," Johannes Hahn said in a statement following a meeting with Xhaferi in Brussels on Thursday.
Hahn urged all political actors to refrain from provocative statements and actions and to behave in a constructive manner.
He reiterated the EU's strong condemnation of last week's attack on parliament and added that any repeat of such acts would endanger the country's EU perspective.
On April 27, in the evening, supporters of former prime minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski stormed the parliament building following the election of Talat Xhaferi, member of the ethnic Albanians' DUI party, as parliament speaker. Three members of parliament, seventy citizens and twenty two policemen sought help in hospital after the attack, according to a police report.
VMRO-DPMNE won a narrow victory against SDSM in the December 11 snap vote and received a mandate to form a government. However, it failed to agree with DUI on forming a government coalition.
In March, Macedonia's president Gjorge Ivanov announced that he would not give the mandate for the formation of government to SDSM leader Zoran Zaev despite the proof of parliamentary majority which Zaev had submitted to him, as he was concerned that SDSM's agreement with ethnic Albanian parties on the formation of a coalition cabinet would jeopardize the country's sovereignty.
The ethnic Albanian parties have pegged their participation in the future government to the acceptance of the so-called Tirana platform - a list of political demands they put forward following consultations with Albania's prime minister Edi Rama, Ivanov said at the time.
Macedonia obtained an EU candidate status in 2005 but its progress to membership has been blocked by a dispute with Greece, which objects to the use of the name Republic of Macedonia, saying it implies territorial claims to the northernmost Greek province of Macedonia.