Defense Minister Vladimir Misajlovski confirmed today that the planned purchase of eight helicopters from the Italian Leonardo company wil go ahead. The contract, signed by the previous Government, was highly criticized in the past, given the corruption allegations linking the italian company and top SDSM party officials.

We are preparing a working group that will examine the budget for next year and the program goals. We have a signed contract with Leonardo, which is really excessive. We met with the ambassador and his new atache yesterday, we are discussing a number of issues. We need to form additional teams to begin the procedure and to live up to the deal, Misajlovskisaid.

He encouraged the Anti-Corruption Commission to examine all allegations involving the 300 million EUR deal. Minister Misajlovski said that  Macedonia could have used the crafts during the serious forest fires that the country endured during this summer.