Brussels, 04/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 4 September in Brussels, Olli Rehn warned that leaders of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) had to increase the country's political stability, ensure the effective functioning of democratic institutions and carry out further reform, particularly in the legal arena and in fighting corruption, if they wanted to obtain a positive opinion from the European Commission in favour of opening accession negotiations. After a meeting with the Macedonian vice prime minister, Ivica Bocevski, the Commissioner for enlargement again deplored the many irregularities observed during the most recent general elections on 1 June. Rehn called on political leaders from FYROM to urgently rectify these anomalies and promote dialogue between all political forces. Mr Rehn said that “respect for the political criteria of Copenhagen is fundamental” for the continuation of FYROM's integration process. The country obtained the status of candidate country in December 2005 but is still waiting impatiently for a date for launching accession negotiations. The Commission has to make a recommendation to the European Council on this question in its next FYROM progress report expected in November. (H.B./trans/rh)