Macedonian lawmakers approve new pro-EU government

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

SKOPJE (AFP) — Macedonia's parliament approved Saturday a new government presented by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who has promised to speed up reforms needed for the Balkan country to join the European Union.

All of the 78 lawmakers present late Saturday voted in favour of the new government, more than one month after Gruevski's conservative VMRO-DPMNE party won a landslide in June 1 elections.

Despite having an absolute majority in the 120-seat parliament, VMRO-DPMNE has formed a coalition government with the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), one of two main parties representing Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who comprise about one quarter of its two million population.

Lawmakers from the other main Albanian party, the Democratic Party for...