Former Yugoslav Republic; southeastern Europe.

GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October).

25,713 sq km (9928 sq miles).
The former Yugoslav republic of ‘Macedonia’ is only one of three areas of the historical region of ‘Macedonia’, which includes Pirin Macedonia (Bulgaria) and Aegean Macedonia (Greece), with a total area of 66,600 sq km (25,700 sq miles), most of which is in Greece. In deference to Greek sensibilities, the United Nations and other international organisations have formally recognised Macedonia under the interim name of ‘The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’; however this is gradually reverting to ‘The Republic of Macedonia’.

2 million (official estimate 2002).

79.7 per sq km.

Skopje. Population: 467,257 (2002).

Roughly rectangular in shape, and on the strategic Vardar Valley north–south communications route, Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic) is landlocked, bordering Serbia & Montenegro to the north, Albania to the west, Greece to the south and Bulgaria to the east.

Legislative power rests with the elected 120-seat national assembly, the Sobranie. Executive authority is wielded by the elected State President who appoints the Council of Ministers. In the parliament of FYROM, 120 members are elected according to the proportional model, whereby the territory of the FYROM is divided into six election districts (determined by law), each of which elects 20 members of the parliament.

Republic since 1991. Gained independence from Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) in 1991. Head of State: President Branko Crvenkovski since 2004. Head of Government : Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski since 2006. Recent history: Vlado Buckovski's Social Democrat coalition was beaten by the opposition nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE in the July 2006 elections. VMRO-DPMNE is led by Nikola Gruevski, a former finance minister. Macedonia was awarded EU candidate status in December 2005. The Macedonian parliament approved a new government proposed by Gruevski on 26 August 2006.

Macedonian (a slavonic language using the Cyrillic script) is the most widely used language. Albanian, Turkish and Serbo-Croat are also used by ethnic groups. English, French and German are widely spoken.

67 per cent of the population are Eastern Orthodox Macedonians and around 23 per cent are Muslim Albanians. There are also Muslim Turks and Serbian Orthodox minorities. As elsewhere in the former Yugoslav federation, local politics are now strongly divided along national religious lines.

Handshaking is the common practice on introduction. Local business protocol is fairly informal, but things go very slowly or not at all owing to the local bureaucracy and the more recent general socio-economic collapse in the Republic.

220 volts AC, 50Hz.