site.btaEU Ambassador in Skopje: North Macedonia's Progress in Accession Negotiations Requires Constitutional Changes

Goodneighbourly relations and regional cooperation remain an essential element of the EU enlargement process, EU Ambassador to the Republic of North Macedonia Michalis Rokas said here on Friday. He was giving a joint news conference with European Affairs Minister Orhan Murtezani, after presenting him with the European Commission's report on the country's progress.

Rokas stressed that North Macedonia has the EU's support in its ambition for accession negotiations, for which changes to the Constitution need to be implemented to include "citizens who live within the country's borders and who are part of other nations, like Bulgarians".

Asked whether it was possible for the constitutional changes to come into force once North Macedonia joins the EU and whether this could be done without changing the negotiating framework, Rokas said that the message from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Skopje last week was clear: the short-term goal was for the country to open the first cluster of negotiations with the EU as soon as possible.

Rokas pointed out that in the Commission's report on North Macedonia there are 120 recommendations that the country should implement in the next year. "This is a list of reforms that the government has agreed to implement and the implementation of which will allow the allocation of significant financial support," Rokas said.

Apart from the need to adopt constitutional changes, the Commission's report stresses that bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries - the Prespa Agreement and the Treaty of Friendship, Goodneighbourliness and Cooperation with Bulgaria - "must be implemented in good faith".
Rokas pointed out that the country must continue to implement reforms related to the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organised crime, and strengthening of the confidence in the justice system.

"The European Commission aims to follow the screening report in terms of fundamental values as well as the roadmaps that are aligned with the negotiating framework to open the first cluster as soon as possible and when the relevant conditions are met. Our assessment is that there has been some progress during the year in the fight against organised crime and limited progress in the judiciary, unlike last year when there was no progress. On the fight against corruption, unfortunately there is no progress, but [in the report] there are positive elements and these are observed in the areas of agriculture, rural development, fisheries, transport and regional policies," Rokas said.

In his words, what is very positive in the report is that North Macedonia remains fully aligned with the EU's common foreign and security policy.