The European Commission (EC) has confirmed for Telma that payment of funds from the third tranche from the IPARD III program for North Macedonia has been stopped due to the investigation and arrest of former Payment Agency Director Ilija Stoilev. On October 29, the Government requested that the EC pay 2.9 million euros.
“In the current circumstances, as a standard preventive measure to protect the European Union budget, the Commission has decided to stop the deadline for payment of the declaration of expenditures for Q3 of 2025 in the frames of the IPARD III program”, the EC told Telma, explain that the preventive measure was adding to the measures already taken by the National Authorizing Officer (NAO).
According to procedures, the EC transfers funds for IPARD to the account of the country at a quarterly level upon previously submitted requests in line with implemented projects. In this case, the EC, as confirmed for Telma, has decided to stop the payment concerning Q3.
That means that from that suspended request on, there will be no payment of additional money from IPARD that was supposed to last until 2027. However, the Finance Ministry told Telma that the EC still had a deadline to respond to its request. As of November 7, the NAO has decided to stop all IPARD III payments until further notice.
The EC pointed out it had regular communication with the NAO and relevant national authorities on progress in the current assessment of risks and required correctional measures.