European Commissioner Johannes Hahn will visit Macedonia on Friday to assess the progress in implementing the EU-brokered agreement for resolving the country’s long-running political crisis. 

Meeting with the representatives of the four main political parties who signed a political deal last summer, Hahn will reiterate their responsibility to implement their agreement, including the need to ensure the conditions for credible elections, according to the deadlines which they had agreed, the Commission said in a news release on Thursday.

Under the agreement, the government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski should resign in time for an interim cabinet under a new prime minister to be sworn in on 15 January, 100 days before early parliamentary elections, to be held on 24 April.

"15 January is a key deadline of the political agreement, the implementation of which is important both for the government and the citizens of the country,” Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, said in the news release.

“I expect that the outstanding elements of the political agreement will be resolved before or during my visit, allowing the election authorities to organise credible elections according to the agreed timetable."

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