17th anniversary of the Ohrid Framework Agreement on Monday

Monday marks the 17. anniversary of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA), which put an end to the 2001 conflict in Macedonia.

Following days of negotiations in Ohrid, the OFA was signed in Skopje on 13 August 2001. Then President Boris Trajkovski, former Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader Ljubco Georgievski, as well as SDSM, DPA and PDP leaders, Branko Crvenkovski, Arben Xhaferi and Imer Imeri respectively, signed the treaty.

The EU and US special representatives, Francois Leotard and James Pardew respectively, signed the document on behalf of the international community.

The then EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, US representative Pieter Feith and legal experts, such as professors Vlado Popovski and Ljubomir Frchkovski, also took part in the negotiations.

More than 130 laws and amendments have been passed over the years, most of which referring to non-discrimination and just representation, identity, culture, education and power decentralization.

Earlier in the year, the Parliament also adopted the Law on the Use of Languages, according to which the official language in all state institutions, public enterprises, agencies, directorates, institutes and organizations, commissions, public entities besides the Macedonian is the Albanian language spoken by 20 percent of citizens.