Reactions to EC recommendation divided.

All political parties welcomed the EC decision to recommend accession talks but, unlike ruling VMRO-DPMNE, the opposition believes that the hardest part of the work is yet to be done and that Gruevski's government will not prove flexible enough in the resolution of the name issue.

Opposition Utrinski vesnik comments today that there are not many reasons for feasting and that the triumphant statements of the government officials only reflect the shortsightedness of the Macedonian political elite. In line with the party position of SDSM, the paper concludes that glasses could be filled with Champaign only after Macedonia is set a date to start accession talks.

"There is no dilemma that there is connection between the setting of a date for starting accession talks with the resolution of the name issue. This is a crucial period for Macedonia's future and we expect Nikola Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE's government to be up to the task, said vice president of SDSM Gordan Georgiev. He called on the prime minister to explain to the whole Macedonia public his future steps.

The tone with which Commissioner Olli Rehn announced the news of the recommendation is nothing but an appeal to the Government to resolve the name issue with Greece as soon as possible. This is the strongest and most direct message from Brussels that deserves an answer from the Macedonian Government, Utrinski vesnik says.

Pro-government Nova Makedonija says that the high rating that NATO and the EU have in Macedonia, in spite of all the problems caused by Greece, in spite the humiliating name of FYROM, and in spite of what happened to the country at the NATO summit in Bucharest, surprised diplomats in Brussels. It would surely have been easier for them if the faith in the EU and NATO had started to wane, since that would have provided them with an excuse for their inability and refusal to handle the absurd issue imposed by Greece on the entire international public, the paper says.

The paper believes that Commissioner Rehn's clear message that Macedonia has to sort out the name issue soon takes us all back to the reality of the double standards of Brussels and hypocrisy of the EU institutions. Macedonia is going to carry on with its reforms and the rating of the European Union and NATO, after this report and the recommendation for talks, will be higher still. If the Europeans themselves claim that the name issue should remain bilateral, they should act accordingly, Nova Makedonija says today.

In the Albanian political campus, the news of the recommendation for starting membership negotiations is seen with a hope that the Ohrid Framework Agreement will not be marginalized. Also, some ethnic Albanian parties caution that the Macedonian political leadership and government would do their best to take advantage of the recommendation for self-promotion and may not pay any attention to the serious criticisms regarding police violence, politics in courts and the public administration and control over media.