News
7/21/2022 03:47
The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European affairs, Bojan Maricik, addressed the public today at a press conference where he explained the process of starting the negotiations for full- fledged membership of the Republic of North Macedonia in the European Union.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Maricik, the screening is a formal and technical operation carried out by the European Commission, which is necessary and very important in order to get a clear overview of where we stand and what we need to do in the years to come, in order to become an equal member state of the Union, he emphasized that the screening will consist of two explanatory phases, where the European Commission will present to the candidate country the key legal acts for each chapter and a bilateral screening, where North Macedonia will present the degree of compliance of the national legislation, according to the presented EU acts during explanatory meetings, institutional capacities and the implementation of laws.
Deputy Prime Minister Maricik emphasized that with the New Methodology for Accession Negotiations in 2020, the screening will take place at the cluster level, after meeting the criteria for opening (if any), and the closing will be at the chapter level after meeting the criteria for closing.
- By closing all the chapters in one cluster, the Cluster will also be closed without any additional conditions. Based on the bilateral screening, the Commission prepares a report on the screening and presents it to the Council, which decides on the start of negotiations, upon the recommendation of the Commission, added Maricik.
Deputy Prime Minister Maricik announced that he expects the first screening Report for the "Fundamental Values" Cluster in the first quarter of 2023 and informed that three roadmaps should be prepared for this Cluster, which should reflect the political commitment to implement key strategic reforms by defining short and medium term goals.
Answers to journalist questions of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs Maricik:
At the press conference, Maricik also presented the time frame in which the explanatory screening is expected to be carried out according to chapters together with the bilateral screening. The calendar of meetings is defined by the European Commission, and based on what was presented to them at the opening meeting of the screening, as a principled calendar of the EC (which may undergo some changes), it can be seen that a dynamic period will await us, with considering that the process of presenting the new legislation starts from September this year, and the bilateral screening will take place in a parallel period of about 15 months, that is, the European Commission plans to finish this process by November 2023.
- A long-term process is in front of us that will depend on all of us and that requires everyone's commitment because in the end the most important thing will be the result of our joint work for the proper organization of the country and its leadership in the European Union, Maricik said, expressing his belief in the capacities to the state authorities that with strong motivation, commitment and effort the path to full membership will be easy and fast.