News
11/23/2022 07:07
Today in Brussels, the three-day bilateral screening for Chapter 24, "Justice, Freedom and Security" ended, during which members of the Macedonian working group presented the position and the level of compliance of the legal system of North Macedonia in relation to the EU legislation, related to judicial cooperation in civil matters and commercial matters, as well as judicial cooperation in criminal matters and the confiscation and freezing of assets.
- In this area, the first step in "accelerating integration" has been made. We asked North Macedonia to become part of the European Migration Network, which is additional proof of the good preparedness in this area and the commitment of the Macedonian negotiating team to the process, Maricikj said, adding that he expects to continue with this good dynamic in the negotiations with the EU.
The chief negotiator with the EU, Maricikj, considers that Chapter 24 is a chapter where we have been already cooperating for years in the field of asylum, migrations and the visa regime and claims that although we have been quite successful in harmonizing this chapter, this is an area in which things are changing rapidly.
According to Maricikj, the crisis of 2015 and 2016 with migrants and the crisis related to Ukraine showed that we have compliance and cooperation with the EU, and the crown of that cooperation is the FRONTEX Agreement, which was recently signed in Skopje and which regulates the issues on the defence of the European border from unwanted and illegal migrations in the long term.
"Accelerated integration" is the new element that enables the participation of the candidate countries in the EU legislation, before the actual accession to the EU. Within the presentation of bilateral meetings, the country may express interest in participating in the acquis, such as participation in Union programs, expert groups, working groups and formats, IT systems, and exchange of information, as well as in the case of participation and application of the COVID certificate, was clarified by the Secretariat for European Affairs.
Over the past three days, the members of the Working Group for Negotiations through 56 presentations on 12 topics related to migration, asylum, judicial cooperation in civil matters, cooperation in the field of the fight against drugs, cooperation in the areas of customs, visa policy, police cooperation and the fight against organized crime, cooperation between financial intelligence units, organized crime, judicial cooperation in criminal matters, the fight against terrorism, visa regime, counterfeiting and external borders.
The representatives of the Working Group on Chapter 24, "Justice, Freedom, and Security" come from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of good governance policies, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is the competent institution for this chapter, the Ministry of Health, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Bank, the Financial Intelligence Authority and the Secretariat for European Affairs.
The bilateral screening continues on December 1st for Chapter 23, "Justice and Fundamental Rights", which together with Chapter 24 is key to the further course and dynamics of EU accession negotiations.