Climate change, Macedonia

Country background

GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Macedonia is located on the Balkan peninsula in Southeastern Europe. The country is landlocked and has common boundaries with Albania in the west, Bulgaria in the east, Greece in the south, and Serbia and Montenegro (including Kosovo) in the north. The capital city, Skopje, lies in the north, on the Vardar river.
Macedonia has total population of 2,022,547 inhabitants (census of 2002), with an average population density of 78.6 inhabitants/km2 of whom roughly 60 percent live in urban areas. High population is concentrated in the larger cities (Skopje – 506 926 inhabitants, Bitola – 95 385, Kumanovo – 105 484, Prilep – 76 768 and Tetovo – 86 580)

BRIEF HISTORY:
Macedonia has a centuries-old history and culture, including Macedonian which falls into the South Slavonic language grouping.

While state independence was reached in most of the Balkans throughout the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, Macedonians achieved independence only towards the end of the Second World War. The Republic was formed on 2 August 1944 and subsequently became part of the Yugoslav Federation as the Republic of Macedonia.

Independence was achieved in 1991 after the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation. There then began the processes of its recognition by other states throughout the world and the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Macedonia’s relations with neighbouring countries reflect its legacy as a former Yugoslav state, manifested in part through an ongoing dispute with Greece over its name. In 1993 the United Nations recognized the state as "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia“.

The country is a full member of the United Nations (1993). Euro-Atlantic accession is a major policy objective driving the government agenda.

In 2001 a conflict erupted, followed by peace negotiations between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Macedonians, which resulted in the Ohrid Framework Agreement. Compliance with the provision of the agreement is the international community’s main bargaining tool for promoting Macedonia’s accession to the EU and NATO.

POLITICAL SYSTEM
Macedonia is a parliamentary democracy with an executive government and an independent judicial branch with a constitutional court. Currently parliament consists of a coaltion holding 60 of the 120 seats. Macedonia currently has 123 municpalities with their own local governments. A new law reduces the number of municaplities to 83 as part of the decentralisation process.

The government coalition is composed of several parties, the main of which are SDSM (Social Democrats) DUI (Democratic Union for integration- ethnic Albanian party) and LDP, (Liberal Democratic Party).
The oposition also gathers several parties, the main one being VMRO-DPMNE.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN FYR MACEDONIA
NATO, the EU, the US and OSCE are the principal guarantors enforcing the Ohrid Framework Agreement. There are many international organizations present in Macedonia including the UN, which is represented by 12 agencies. These include UNDP, UNICEF, UNMIK, UNHCR, IOM, FAO, UNODC, WHO,OHCHR, OCHA, the World Bank and IMF.
Since the end of the 2001 conflict and the stabilization of the political situation in the country, UN support to Macedonia has shifted from emergency assistance towards development.