With the help of a European Union delegation, Macedonian parties on Friday reached a deal to end the political crisis plaguing the country in the last two months and threatening its EU ambition.

The deal was reached after hours of meeting among European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, European Parliament's Rapporteur on Macedonia Richard Howitt, former president of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, Macedonian President Gjorgje Ivanov, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and leader of the oppositional SDSM Branko Crvenkovski.

As part of the deal, the opposition parties led by the social-democrats SDSM will not boycott the local elections set for March 24 and their MPs will return to the parliament. An agreement for early parliamentary elections should be reached by September.

"The agreement also includes setting joint ad hoc commission that will investigate the incidents in the parliament. The issue for early general election has to be discussed after the local elections," Howitt said after the meeting.

The opposition was demanding early general elections, arguing that the government had lost its legitimacy to rule after SDSM lawmakers were thrown out of the assembly last December when they tried to block the vote for the 2013 budget law.

The incident caused the opposition MPs to leave the parliament and led to two-month-long protests on the streets.

Ivanov and the EU officials expressed satisfaction for the agreement.

"I'm pleased with the positive attitude of the leaders of all political parties that have decided to bring back on track the European agenda of the country," Ivanov said.

"We are pleased to see that the political leaders have finally been able to show their political responsibility and courage to agree on a solution," the EU trio said in a joint statement.

Macedonia has been an EU candidate country since 2005 and is expecting a date to start its EU membership negotiations.

According to the EU shuttle mission to Macedonia, the EU progress report on the country will depend on the implementation of the latest political agreement.

"Now we look forward to a swift implementation of the agreement so that the European integration agenda comes back on track," the EU trio said. Endi

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