News
11/17/2022 08:24
The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs, Bojan Maricic, said in today's statement to the media that we are now at a stage where the burden of European integration is on the Government, but there will come a time when we will receive the screening reports, when we will receive the tasks and when the Parliament will also need to act.
- I am glad that yesterday several laws were passed or the first clearing procedure has been started for the adoption of several laws that have been sitting in the Parliament for a long time and were marked with the European flag. I think it is a good first step, I have made a public invitation several times, but also in direct communication with the National Council for European Integration to intensify things, communication and make a joint plan to push European reforms, what is connected with screening and the negotiations through the Parliament, said Maricikj.
The chief negotiator with the EU says that the Parliament, in addition to passing the laws, will be able to monitor the negotiating positions, discuss, and influence them.
- We are ready for that as a government. It certainly creates an atmosphere for the constitutional amendments, I don't believe that we will rush, although we had a leadership meeting and I think that there will be a series of meetings that should lead to an atmosphere in which we will not allow ourselves to be an obstacle to our European integration path. I have said that before, for the first time in history the blockade is in our hands, added Deputy Prime Minister Maricikj.
When asked how the screening process is going, Maricikj said that he was satisfied with the course of the screening meetings and that at the bilateral screenings the Macedonian negotiating team had detailed presentations that were praised by the experts from the European Commission, with very detailed questions and very intense questions.
Maricikj announced that the bilateral screening for Chapter 24 will start next week, for which they will have a lot of work and a three-day intensive agenda with forty presenters from the area, from various institutions, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor's Office, the Judicial Council.
He explained that the same applies to chapter 23, which will take place in the first week of December, and that will practically complete the agenda for this year, and that he expects to maintain this pace and have an equal level of preparedness with all chapters.
The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that we should use the attention we have from the European leaders, from the European institutions and from the member states in our favour, in order to deflect all the obstacles, including the constitutional amendments, and to continue the negotiations even after November 2023.
- The process of visits by high officials of the EU will continue, I am convinced that it can only develop, the German president will also pay a visit at the end of this month. And that trend will not stop during the coming year. It is not any pressure, it is attention that is in our favour. We should be aware that the blockade is in our hands and that it depends on us how we will continue and whether we will continue, said Maricikj.
Regarding the constitutional amendments, he said that they will discuss with all groups and with all MPs and expressed confidence that they are not as far as it might seem from 80, adding that the meetings to open a dialogue on this issue, which should reach all MPs, will continue to all parliamentary groups and from the opposition, but also from the ruling majority.
- At this stage, everyone highlights a wide range of ideas regarding constitutional amendments, and that is good, but we will reach a stage where we will have to direct the agenda to what is really needed for unblocking. Mr. Trajanov will then also have the opportunity to say under what conditions and whether he would support the constitutional amendments, but I think that apart from him, no one else has expressed being reserved regarding the support, we are talking about the government majority, stressed Maricikj.