News
7/21/2022 02:02
The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European affairs, Bojan Maricik, addressed the public today on a press conference where he explained the process of starting the negotiations for full membership of the Republic of North Macedonia in the European Union.
- I would say, 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 a full- fledged member state of the Union, stated the Deputy Prime Minister Maricik 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 acts of the EU during explanatory meetings, institutional capacities and law enforcement.
- The screening process, although it is considered a technical operation, should be seen as an essential element of the accession negotiations, because it gives us the image of everything we need to do in the years to come in order to implement the EU agenda reforms. Here I mean the alignment with European law and standards, but also the building of administrative capacities and efficient implementation of the harmonized legislation, explained Deputy Prime Minister Maricik.
North Macedonia went through the process of explanatory (screening) meetings in the period 2018-2019 for the 33 chapters, before the publication of the new methodology, and during this period the European Commission presented over 8,000 EU acts to about 2,000 of our civil servants. Based on this experience, the administration is ready for easier updating of EU legislation.
Answers to journalist questions of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs Maricik
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 (screening report) and presents it to the Council, which decides on the start of the negotiations, on the recommendation of the Commission, Maricik added.