SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
On Wednesday, EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas officially handed over the European Commission’s Report on North Macedonia PM Hristijan Mickoski, with whom they also held a press-conference on the matter.
“Even without this Report, as the PM, I know that citizens have a difficult life and that we need major steps forwards, key reforms. That’s what I perhaps find to be a key priority, which is the fight against corruption,” the PM noted, adding that the Report painted a realistic picture.
Mickoski also said he was encouraged that even though the new government had been elected on 23 June, the Commission acknowledged the efforts with regards to fighting corruption, “something which wasn’t the case in the previous Report”.
As in previous years, the PM underlined, the biggest weaknesses concern the fundamentals cluster, that is, the areas related to the judiciary and public administration. In that regard, he said that the previous government should have done better.
“However, let’s leave that behind. We must overcome political mutual accusations and focus on what all of us should do jointly. We have no time to waste. A lot of work awaits all of us because reforms and the EU path are a long-term and all-encompassing process,” Mickoski stressed.
Though the PM believes that citizens are fatigued over the process and that the country has been in the waiting room unjustifiably, he considers that EU membership remains the only sustainable and strategic goal for the future of everyone.
Answering a journalist’s question about the obligation for constitutional changes, which is referred to in the Report, the PM stated that the public would be informed once there was any progress.
Ambassador Rokas stated that it was important that the Report didn’t note backsliding. As he also pointed out, since there is now a full picture of what the Government has approved and the Report, that can be a platform on which there will be work together in 2025.
“Together, we will work committedly, hand-in-hand, so that we have much greater progress next year,” he underlined.
