Macedonia urged to speed up reforms for EU membership
European Union (EU) has urged Macedonia’s government to strictly implement wide range reforms necessary for membership at 25-nation bloc.
EU’s executive body, the European Commission (EC) told on Wednesday Macedonian government that although the country will become in December the official candidate to join the European family, authorities must speed up efforts in order to meet the conditions which will allow later the opening of the membership talks.
EC’s spokeswoman Chrisztina Naggy told reporters after a meeting in Brussels of Macedonia’s foreign minister Ilinka Mitreva with European Commissioner in charge of EU enlargement Olli Rehn that Macedonia must continue progress “on implementation of Ohrit Agreement, reforms in judiciary, law and order, electoral system and build up capacities of its administration to implement laws”.
Macedonia will next month move closer toward EU as 25 governments of the bloc are to approve the recommendation of European Commission for the candidate status of the Balkan country.
But last week, Macedonian authorities were warned by Rehn that talks shouldn’t be taken for granted and Macedonia must do more on reforms in order it can be ready to launch membership talks with 25-nation bloc.
“.. the country is not ready to start accession negotiations yet…The (EU) Commission is not rushing ahead to recommend accession negotiations before the country is ready. We will assess the situation regularly and will recommend opening negotiations only once a sufficient level of compliance with the Copenhagen criteria is reached”, Olli Rehn told European parliamentarians last week.
His spokeswoman Naggy said that next spring the EC will asses again the state level of the reforms, and respond whether Macedonia has achieved sufficient progress on mentioned issues before any date for membership talks can be proposed to EU member nations.
Macedonia is expected to have problems with Greek authorities during the membership talks as Athens has threatened that the neighbouring Balkan country can not enter the bloc with its current constitutional name: Republic of Macedonia.
Greece refuses to recognize the Balkan country by its constitutional name and uses the acronym “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia-FYROM”, as admitted in UN since 1993.
Macedonia is also the name of Greece's Northern Province and Athens has been worried that the name could imply territorial claims for its own province and make separatists to seek independence.
Greece and Macedonia have been disputing over the name of the Balkan country for more than a decade.
Macedonia is also the name of Greece's Northern Province and Athens has been worried that the name could imply territorial claims for its own province and make separatists to seek independence. |
