The Ohrid Framework Agreement (, ) was the peace deal signed by the government of the Republic of Macedonia (now

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

) and representatives of the Albanian minority on 13 August 2001. The agreement was signed by the country's four political parties after international mediators demanded their commitment to its ratification and implementation within a four-year period.

Provisions

The Ohrid Agreement created a framework for North Macedonia as a civic state, ending the

armed conflict War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

between the National Liberation Army and the security forces of Macedonia. It established basic principles of the state such as cessation of hostilities, voluntary disarmament of ethnic Albanian armed groups, government devolution, and the reform of minority political and cultural rights. The deal also included provisions for altering the official languages of the country, with any language spoken by more than 20% of the population becoming co-official with the

Macedonian language Macedonian ( ; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch. Sp ...

at the municipal level. Only the

Albanian language Albanian (Endonym and exonym, endonym: , , or ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid, Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan languages, Paleo-Balkan group. It ...

, with an approximate 25% of the population being speakers, currently qualifies as a co-official language under this criterion. The Ohrid Framework Agreement is an example of the adoption of

consociationalism Consociationalism ( ) is a form of democratic power sharing. Political scientists define a consociational state as one which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, but which remains stable due to consultation ...

. According to the document, the English-language version is the only authentic version of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. The Government of Macedonia had to adapt the Constitution of Macedonia in order to provide the Albanian minority living in Macedonia with fifteen basic rights. The lead negotiator, on the behalf of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, was

François Léotard François Gérard Marie Léotard (; 26 March 1942 – 25 April 2023) was a French politician. Singer and actor Philippe Léotard was his brother. A member of the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the Union for French ...

James W. Pardew James William Pardew Jr. (February 5, 1944 – June 2, 2021) was an American diplomat, international negotiator, military officer, and United States Ambassador to Bulgaria. After serving as a military intelligence officer in the United States Arm ...

represented the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Notes

External links

Ohrid Framework Agreement Authoritative English Text
hosted via

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

.
Ohrid Framework Agreement Text in MacedonianOhrid Framework Agreement Text in AlbanianFlorian Bieber et al., ''Power Sharing and the Implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement''
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung - Office Macedonia, Skopje, 2008.
Marija Risteska and Zhidas Daskalovski (eds), ''One decade after the Ohrid Framework Agreement: Lessons (to be) learned from the Macedonian experience''
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Center for research and policy making, 2011.
Blerim Reka (ed.), ''Ten years from the Ohrid Framework Agreement''
South East European University, Tetovo, 2011. 2001 insurgency in Macedonia Linguistic rights Minority rights Power sharing Treaties of North Macedonia Treaties concluded in 2001 Treaties entered into force in 2001 Peace treaties History of Ohrid August 2001 in Europe {{NorthMacedonia-hist-stub