According to the office of the Transnational Radical Party (TRP) in Tirana, European Council President Pierre Moscovici has promised the support of the European Union for the privately-run University of Tetovo, an Albanian-language institution of higher education in Macedonia. Moscovici expressed the EU's support in response to a recent query from European Parliament member Olivier Dupuis, who is also general secretary of the TRP.

French Minister Moscovici applauded the good will of Macedonian politicians for cooperating on sensitive questions such as this and affirmed his conviction that the Macedonian authorities will work toward stabilising the development of the new university. OSCE representative for minorities, Van der Stoel, will work with the Macedonians to help attract donors from the European Community and its member states.

European Parliament Members Dupuis and Doris Pack, during budgetary proceedings for 2001, presented an amendment to the EP's Foreign Affairs Committee calling for a pledge of EUR 10 million from the amount allotted to the Western Balkans to help co-finance the University of Tetovo. "Such an initiative would be a concrete response to the new law on university education adopted by the Macedonian parliament last July," reads a statement released by the TRP in Tirana, "according to which instruction in languages other than Macedonian can be offered. The new law will allow the Albanian-speaking community of Macedonia to have access to university."