The Republic of Macedonia must accelerate the pace of reform

Internal political tensions in 2007 have diverted the Republic of Macedonia's political institutions away from the priorities of European integration and delayed reform, according to EU foreign affairs ministers at their December 10 General Affairs and External Relations Council. The Council encouraged all political parties to deepen political dialogue and cooperation, especially on interethnic relations, so as to be able to move ahead in the EU accession process.
Reforms should be speeded up in judicial and public administration and in the fight against corruption, and police reform should be implemented faster. Unemployment and the general business environment also needed attention, said EU ministers. The Council also issued an appeal to the Government to "make renewed efforts, with a constructive approach, to find a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution on the name issue with Greece, under the auspices of the UN, thereby contributing to regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations."
The EU-the Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee, meeting in Brussels on 26-27 November called for accession negotiations to start as soon as possible, and encouraged the government, the opposition and all the stakeholders in the Republic of Macedonia to do their utmost to carry out the necessary reforms to fulfil the necessary criteria. Among its other conclusions, it noted "the difficulties faced by citizens of the Macedonia due to the non-recognition by Greece of its passports, and the situation linked with the name issue; calls on both parties to honour commitments as outlined in the Joint Declaration annexed to the text of the EC-the Macedonia Visa Facilitation Agreement to re-assess the issue, as a matter of priority".
The EU is to abolish as from 1 January 2008 a double-checking system on imports of steel products from the Republic of Macedonia.

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