Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski submitted his resignation to the Speaker of Parliament Trajko Veljanoski on Friday.

The resignation of Gruevski is part of the political agreements reached between the main political parties of Macedonia in June and July last year with the mediation of the EU.

European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn is in on a visit to Macedonia on Friday in order to hold talks with the leaders of the four largest parties in the country.

Hahn will meet Gruevski, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, Ali Ahmeti from the Democratic Union for Integration and Menduh Thaci from the Democratic Party of Albanians.

He will assess the progress achieved in implementing the agreements and will highlight the need for holding credible elections within the agreed deadline.

The commissioner will also reiterate the importance of implementing the urgent reform priorities to which the leaders had agreed.

Speaking ahead of his visit, Hahn noted that the implementation of the agreement is important both for the government and the citizens of the country.

He expressed hope that the outstanding issues will be resolved before or during his visit in order to allow authorities to organise credible elections.

Gruevski announced in an address to the nation on Thursday that he will step down on Friday in order to allow for a period of 100 days before the holding of early parliamentary elections which are scheduled to take place on April 24.

Following his resignation, an interim government will be appointed with the prime minister nominated by the party of Gruevski.

The ruling VMRO-DPMNE party nominated on Thursday Emil Dimitriev as prime minister of the interim government which will be in charge of organising the elections.

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