The Macedonian Parliament and the Ohrid Institute for Economic Strategies and International Affairs organised a conference on NATO and the role of national parliaments from 17-19 February 2008. The Chairpersons of the Committees on Foreign Policy and Defence of the Parliaments of the NATO member countries, the countries included in the Adriatic Partnership (Macedonia, Albania, Croatia) and the Partnership for Peace participated. Two Dutch parliamentarians attended the conference: Mr. Fred de Graaf (VVD, Party for Freedom and Democracy), Chairman of the committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy of the Dutch Senate and Mrs Janneke Schermers (CDA, Christian Democratic Party), member of the standing committee on Foreign Affairs of the Dutch House of Representatives. The Embassy has contributed financially to the event. The conference website is  www.nato-skopje2008.org.mk.

The conference was considered an important event  in Macedonia. At its opening Prime Minister Gruevski stressed Macedonia's consistent support for NATO and its objectives and underlined Macedonia's participation in the missions in among others Aghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia (EU/Althea). He called upon all participants to support Macedonia's strong wish to receive an invitation for NATO-membership in April, during the Bucharest Summit.     

One of Senator De Graaf's intervention was widely acknowlegded by the other participants and atttracted the attention of the media. Mr. De Graaf stated that "when judging foreign policy of our own governement, especially regarding international negotiations, for us parliamentarians the rule of fair play is very important. That means that you may not change the rules during the play. The 26 members of the Alliance should therefore consider, on the basis of the previously agreed criteria, whether Albania, Croatia and Macedonia can be granted access to the Alliance".

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 Utrinski Vesnik
 Deutsche Welle
 Southeast European Times
 Kanal 5
 VMRO-DPMNE official website