The European Commission Progress Report on Republic of Macedonia handed over



The European Commission welcomes the reforms achieved in Macedonia in the last year, however it notes to the Government that it should speed up the judicial and internal affairs reforms and to reinforce the measures for fight against organised crime and corruption. This is indicated in the European Commission Progress Report on Republic of Macedonia in the EU accession process, which was published on 8 November 2006.
“Republic of Macedonia has continued to make progress over the past year – since the granting of candidate status a year ago – but at a slower pace”, the Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn during today’s presentation of the EC Report. The report also states that the Parliamentary Elections might be one of the reasons for the slower implementation of the reforms.
The Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to the Republic of Macedonia, Erwan Fouéré has officially handed over the European Commission’s report to the Government of Republic of Macedonia.
“This Report gives the indication on what we should focus in future, what are the weaknesses that we should concentrate on, what we should do, and where we need to pay more attention. And that is what we are going to do”, outlined Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, after the handover of the Report. He also pointed out that Government will analyse the Report and subsequently express its position.
According to the Ambassador Fouéré the Report reflects the progress that has been achieved by Macedonia in the past 12 months. “This report is based on rigorous objective assessment of the progress achieved and also it is encouragement to the country to pursue the reform and to redouble its effort in order to bring the country further on the way towards EU accession”, Fouéré said.
“The Report gives a realistic reflection of the conditions, and it will provide the positive framework within which the Government will position its priorities for the upcoming period, so that in 2007 we can show results on the issues that have been raised in the Report”, the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for European Affairs, Gabriela Konevska Trajkovska said.
Konevska-Trajkovska referred to certain issues which have been raised in the Report. In the area of political criteria, she emphasised the fight against corruption, public administration, and the issues of political dialogue. In respect to the criteria for adoption of the acquis communautaire, a focus on the implementation of the strategic documents and law enforcement is needed. A special emphasis was given to the harmonisation in the area of electronic communications – liberalisation of telecommunications, which is also a priority in the implementation of the Stabilisation and association Agreement.
The documents are attached at the following links:
Progress report on the Republic of Macedonia [en]
EU Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2006 – 2007[en]
Extract from the Conclusions of the EC's Report to the European Parliament and the Council - Startegy for Enlargement and main Chalenges 2006-2007 [mk]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Decentralising Structural Funds' management to the regional level

Decentralising Structural Funds' management to the regional level Decentralised programming = Decentralised implementation? Or, Why (further) decentralisation of implementation is a bad idea Since programming will focus on the NUTS 2 level in the future, there will be a tendency to decentralise management of Structural Funds and Instruments to this level. This paper problematises the management side of this issue, arguing that decentralised programming need not automatically mean decentralised management of the programmes, and indeed that there are many reasons why, particularly in the new Member states, any (further) decentralisation of management is likely to have negative consequences. These conclusions are based on the findings of an institutional capacity measurement recently undertaken at 4 implementing agencies in one new member state (to ensure confidentiality, the results will be presented generically and anonymously). Ten criteria were used to measure capacity at exist
Read more

Information/communication – lessons learned in Sweden

Information/communication – lessons learned in Sweden This presentation will be about story telling. I have chosen this expression because I think it is often more to the point and easier to understand than Information-communication. I will focus on storytelling to the media and by the media. What can we do, as officials, to help the media to tell some of the very interesting and thrilling stories that are to tell about the structural fund’s interventions? There will always be brochures and leaflets and websites and advertising, but there is nothing like the media when credibility is concerned. My name is Maria Evertsson. I work as a communication officer at Nutek, a Swedish state agency dealing with business development and structural funds. I have worked with EU-related issues since Sweden became a member in 1995. Before that I worked as a journalist. My e-mail adress is: Maria.evertsson@nutek.se I will divide my presentation into three parts: The media situation Success factors Dif
Read more

Small Business Ideas

Small Business Ideas You Can Run From Home If you have a desire to start a home-based business, you’re part of a growing trend. As a matter of fact, one commonly cited statistic is that a home-based business is started every 11 seconds. As of the year 2000, there were 28.3 million home based businesses in the United States, up 2.1 million over 1999. Home-based businesses tend to have a higher than average survival rate as well, and of course, nothing beats the convenience of working from home. You’re convinced—so where do you start? What is the best home-based business? The answer, of course, is that it depends. What are your particular talents and strengths? Many home-based small business owners got their start by leveraging an existing hobby into a business. This is probably the best approach, so you would do well at the start to take stock of your talents, abilities and resources, and ask if there some way you can profit from these. With a slew of “home-based business ideas”, you wi
Read more