EU Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn called on the Macedonian opposition to return to parliament in order to defuse the heightened political tensions, which have recently gripped the country.

Hahn said this after a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Thursday, the Macedonian Information Agency (MIA) informs.

In his words, the situation in Macedonia was “very serious” and it represented both a criminal case and a political scandal.

According to him, this necessitated the establishment of an inquiry parliamentary committee dealing with the political responsibility of the issue.

The EU Commissioner stated that Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were discussing the situation and attempting to find a solution between the key players.

Hahn highlighted that it was necessary that both criminal and political responsibility be established in the coming period.

The EU Commissioner called on the Macedonian judiciary to follow up the case and carefully consider its criminal aspects.

He revealed that the EU Commission had offered to give some support and provide the necessary experts, who can guarantee the impartiality of the investigations.

However it was entirely up to Macedonia to deal with the issue and the way in which it was handled would be an indication of the country's European perspective.

There have been anti-government protests since Tuesday, when opposition SDSM leader Zoran Zaev hurled the latest in a series of accusations against the government and demanded its resignation and that of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

Zaev revealed on Tuesday a wiretapping, which according to him proved that the government and the interior ministry plotted in the cover-up of a 2011 police killing.