Macedonia Gets Conditional Date for Start of EU Accession Talks – in June 2019

With the achieved progress, Macedonia has opened the path to starting accession negotiations in June 2019. At Tuesday’s meeting in Luxembourg, the EU Council conditioned the decision with the implementation of the necessary reforms. The meeting saw the Council decide that Macedonia set the road towards a start of negotiations in June 2019 due to the achieved progress. According to the conclusions, the decision is a result of the implementation of the Przino deal, the Urgent Reform Priorities and the positive momentum created by the name agreement with Greece. As it was said, the Council underlines the critical need for the country to continue making concrete progress on the Urgent Reform Priorities and to deliver further tangible results in the fight against corruption, maintaining and deepening the current reform momentum. “To this effect, the Council calls on the Commission to monitor closely the above reform efforts of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and will assess progress on the basis of the yearly Commission report. The Council recalls that the decision to open accession negotiations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be subject to completion of national parliamentary procedures and the endorsement by the European Council and swiftly thereafter be followed by the first Intergovernmental Conference by the end of 2019, depending on progress made,” the document says. The Council underlines that this assessment of progress should include further tangible and sustained results, focusing in particular on: public administration reform, intelligence and security services reform, as well as judicial reforms and proactive investigations, prosecutions and final convictions in corruption and organised crime cases, including at high level. “The Council takes note of the intention of the Commission to begin the necessary preparatory work,” it was also pointed out.