GENERAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL: BALKANS AGAIN AT THE TOP OF THE AGENDA.

Musical chairs.Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim will have breakfast with the European foreign policy Troika of Swedish and Belgian Foreign Ministers Anna Lindh and Louis Michel, Chris Patten, the EU Commissioner for External Relations, and Javier Solana, the High Representative of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy - who has been in close touch with the Macedonian Government during its month-long confrontation with ethnic Albanian rebels, helping establish delicate all-party talks on Albanian grievances.Part of the process of moving a more stable Macedonia closer to Europe is the plan for the leaders of all the parliamentary parties to attend the SAA signing ceremony, as well as Mr Georgievskii, Mr Kerim and two Deputy Prime Ministers - although the final line-up is still uncertain: opposition parties have been nervous of alienating their more radical supporters, and internal divisions persist between hard-liners and moderates within the main parties. Although all the leaders did attend a political dinner with Mr Solana on 2 April, Imer Imeri of the opposition Albanian PDP did not turn up to the first meeting of the party leaders, chaired by President Boris Trajkovski, on the same day. Meanwhile Branko Crvenkovski, who leads the main Slav opposition party, at first was refusing to participate in the parliamentary-level Committee for Euro-Atlantic Integration, though he later indicated he had changed his mind. This was meant to meet on 5 April but was put off until the next day, when a high-level meeting was also discussing who, finally, would go to Luxembourg. EU Ministers, finding that the EU is finally at the head of international efforts to resolve a Balkan crisis, are likely to ask Mr Solana to keep up his work in Macedonia.Other Balkan issues.Other issues on the GAC agenda are Montenegro's Parliamentary elections on 22 April, which are seen as preparing for a referendum on independence, the arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, the visit of a justice and home affairs Troika to the Balkans on 27-28 March to discuss migration control with local leaders, and the publication of the EU's report on depleted uranium on 6 March. Although Milo Djukanovic, the Montenegrin President, was a close Western ally during the Milosevic regime, the EU has been unenthusiastic about his efforts to separate his country from Yugoslavia.Ministers are likely to stress that state media...