Macedonia Press Review – February 15, 2012

DNEVNIK
Macedonian taxpayers pay 180.000 euros each year for the activities of Branko Crvenkovski, the former head of state and current leader of the opposition Social Democrats, the daily calculates. The newspaper notes that despite this sum, Crvenkovski is much more active as opposition leader than as former President. According to his official web page he has had so far had only 15 activities as former head of state. His term ended in 2009.

UTRNSKI VESNIK
The ruling of the International Court of Justice against Greece is a success for Macedonia but Germany wants to see a solution of the long-standing name dispute between these two countries. That remains the primary precondition for Macedonia to unblock its NATO accession bid. This was the message from the German Chancelor Angela Merkel after she met with Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski on Tuesday in Berlin. In December ICJ said that Greece breached a UN brokered Agreement when it blocked Macedonia’s NATO entry in 2008 citing the name dispute. Macedonia hopes to use this as an additional argument in its favor.

Balkan Insight has not verified the reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.