Nezavisen: US Embassy Briefs All Non-Governmental and Other Organisations to Stop Implementation of Projects and Make no Payments

On Monday morning, the US Embassy informed all non-governmental and other organisations, which had already received and almost implemented projects in North Macedonia, to stop the implementation and make no payments, in accordance with the 90-day pause in foreign development assistance ordered by US President Donald Trump, Nezavisen reported on Monday.

According to the portal, that is a real shock for all those who work with the Embassy because it had been expected that the order would concern new, not ongoing projects.

In general, US assistance in the country was managed through Embassy projects and USAID, while it focused on the rule of law, cybersecurity, environment, democracy development, improvement of competitiveness, greater citizen participation, and fighting corruption, Nezavisen said in its report.

The US has provided almost 500 million dollars for the judiciary alone, over which Ambassador Aggeler lamented that despite the amount spent to strengthen judicial independence, confidence in it was still very low.

“The US would provide assistance during the pandemic too (around 1.5 million dollars, while, in total, since 1993, when it started to work this way with Macedonia, it has provided assistance of almost a billion dollars, excluding military assistance”, Nezavisen also said, adding that though NGOs and media were mainly affected by the order, Governmental and other institutions, too, had received assistance through USAID.