North Macedonia: Parliament votes to dissolve and fixes elections

The Parliament of North Macedonia voted this Sunday, February 16 for its dissolution and fixed April 12 for early elections, eight months before the end of the current mandate, a major test for the pro-European policy of the former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Read also: Brussels is trying to relaunch the accession of Albania and North Macedonia

The dissolution was voted by 108 deputies on 120, following the resignation of Zoran Zaev which occurred last month, after the inability of the European Union to agree on a date of opening of the negotiations of membership of the bloc for this Balkan country.

Zoran Zaev's government has been replaced by an interim government led by Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski, whose mandate is to ensure that elections are held in a transparent and fair manner.

Integration into the EU is not progressing

Meeting in October in Brussels, the leaders of the European Union countries failed to agree on the issue of the enlargement of the bloc to Albania and North Macedonia, candidates since 2014 and 2005 respectively.

The latter, however, expected to start discussions, given the agreement that put an end to its diplomatic quarrel of almost 30 years with Greece.

Read also: Macedonia: Athens officially reconciled with Skopje

Unlike the vast majority of bloc countries, a handful of member states - France, the Netherlands and Denmark - believe that neither the EU nor the candidate countries are ready for this enlargement - the first since l integration of Croatia in 2013.

Read also: EU: Macron more flexible on Albania and Macedonia

This position was regretted by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who on Friday invited Albania and North Macedonia to " not give up ", ensuring that they were in no way responsible for this situation.

Read also: Enlargement: the EU requires patience from North Macedonia and Albania