MACEDONIA: CONTINUED MOMENTUM ON MAY 29 AGREEMENT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SKOPJE 000950 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/SCE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL NATO MK SUBJECT: MACEDONIA: CONTINUED MOMENTUM ON MAY 29 AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION REF: A. SKOPJE 875 ¶B. SKOPJE 941 SUMMARY ¶1. (SBU) A little more than six months after concluding the US/EU-brokered five-point May 29 agreement (ref A),governing VMRO and opposition DUI finally are taking concrete steps toward implementing it. On December 3, Parliament adopted the legislative proposals included in the agreement (ref B). VMRO's representative on the parliamentary Inter-ethnic Affairs Committee (IEC) then resigned, allowing for reconstitution of that committee and meeting another of the May 29 agreement conditions. In the joint VMRO-DUI working groups on the other two key points of the agreement -- a draft language law and a social benefits package for victims of the 2001 conflict -- there are signs that a more pragmatic approach might be gaining ground. We will push both sides to build on the spirit of compromise that characterized the first week of December in an effort to resolve the social benefits package issue by the end of the year, and to make steady progress on a draft language law that could be submitted to the parliament for consideration by early 2008. End summary. MAY 29 AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION - TWO IN ONE BLOW... ¶2. (SBU) Overcoming a months-long impasse in the implementation of the US/EU-brokered May 29 agreement between governing VMRO and opposition DUI, the leaders of the governing and opposition parties met November 30 to hammer out compromises on two of the five points in that agreement (ref A). On December 3, the Parliament quickly passed the draft law on the parliamentary Inter-ethnic Affairs Committee (IEC). This bill also included the agreed list of laws requiring qualified (Badinter) majority voting for any future amendments, another point in the May 29 agreement. VMRO's representative on the IEC then stepped down, allowing for that committee to be reconstituted and meeting another of the conditions in the May 29 agreement. VICTIMS OF CONFLICT WORKING GROUP - INTRANSIGENCE GIVES WAY TO GREATER PRAGMATISM... ¶3. (SBU) Building on the positive momentum, the VMRO-DUI working group on a compensation package for victims of the 2001 conflict met the evening of December 3. Despite having reached a deadlock on the issue in an earlier meeting in October, the group moved toward a resolution of the issue in brief but substantive discussions. DUI opened the talks by restating the party's demand for a law on former NLA fighters that would formally codify the compensation package and would give the former insurgent fighters the same status as former Macedonian military and police members who took part in the 2001 fighting. (Note: The DUI demand for a new law is a non-starter for the government and is contrary to the terms of the May 29 agreement, as we have made clear in our conversations with DUI leaders. End note.) Sensing immediate and resolute pushback, the DUI delegation then adopted a more conciliatory stance and pledged to provide to VMRO a list of those persons who DUI believes would qualify for the compensation package. EUSR representatives who monitored the working group later pushed DUI to provide the list within a week, to capitalize on the positive momentum. LANGUAGE LAW WORKING GROUP - TRYING TO SQUARE THE CIRCLE... ¶4. (SBU) In a meeting of the VMRO-DUI working group on the law on languages the evening of December 4, both sides managed to move from strictly legalistic arguments regarding what the Constitution and the Framework Agreement (FWA) guarantee in terms of language use rights, to a more pragmatic discussion of common elements in their positions. With both sides having failed to budge from diametrically opposed legal arguments in earlier meetings, DUI's delegation chair, Musa Xhaferi, conceded during the December 4 meeting that the parties' "fundamental differences" in interpreting the FWA and the Constitution as they relate to the use of language were "insurmountable." SKOPJE 00000950 002 OF 002 ¶5. (SBU) Following Xhaferi's comments, Deputy Prime Minister Stavreski presented a more conciliatory VMRO position. He suggested that the working group work to identify several points of agreement on the practical use of the Albanian language, which then could be discussed in the parliament. Stavreski also suggested a more general formulation along the lines of "Both parties agree that Albanian could be used in communication with the local authorities and with the local branches of the central government. Every other use of the Albanian language would be considered a matter of individual rights and would be addressed accordingly." ¶6. (SBU) Another VMRO suggestion was to publicly agree that the FWA and the Constitution intended for a "tripartite gradation" of languages in Macedonia; in other words, using Macedonian as the "official language," Albanian as a "service language," and all other minority languages as "service languages" in certain situations. DUI did not agree with the VMRO formulation, although it does not dispute the notion of the "tripartite gradation" presented by VMRO. The group agreed that both sides would think about ways to refine the VMRO formulation and to present the alternatives at the next working group, scheduled for December 19. An uncharacteristically sentimental Xhaferi said that DUI realized that the language law was a sensitive political issue, but added that "if we are to do this thing, it will be with VMRO and nobody else, because VMRO is a pragmatic player." COMMENT ¶7. (SBU) The positive momentum generated by the November 30 leaders meeting and the December 3 parliamentary approval of the May 29 legislation provides a good foundation for moving ahead on the remaining two key points in the May 29 agreement, and we will try to capitalize on it for the remainder of the year. We will work with our EUSR colleagues to push the social benefits package working toward resolution by the end of 2007, and will keep the pressure on the language working group to produce a draft law for parliamentary consideration by early 2008. In the latter case, we will work with both VMRO and DUI to identify areas of agreement in their respective versions of a draft language law, and to build on those areas to produce a draft that is 60-70% agreed before they submit it for parliamentary consideration. MILOVANOVIC