The European Commission adopted the draft negotiating framework for our country. It means that the document that will guide membership negotiations with North Macedonia is now with EU member-states, which should approve the final version thus marking the formal start of the negotiations process when the contents of negotiating frameworks for North Macedonia and Albania will be made public. It is estimated that the draft framework will be reconsidered among member-states in Brussels as early as next week.
The European Commission was invited to present its proposals in March 2020 by the General Affairs Council, when the decision was taken to open accession negotiations with both countries.
On that occasion, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner OIiver Varhelyi commented: “Today marks another important step on Albania’s and North Macedonia’s paths to the European Union. Delivering on our commitment, we outline concrete frameworks for the conduct of accession negotiations. Our proposals build on the revised enlargement methodology we put forward in February to make the accession process more credible, with a stronger political steer, more dynamic and predictable. I look forward to the discussions with member-states and to holding as soon as possible the first inter-governmental conferences with the two countries. Their future lies clearly in the European Union and I am confident they will continue to deliver on the reforms on their EU path, as they have done so far.”
According to Chief of Diplomacy Nikola Dimitrov, with these changes the process will be more credible, more specific, more reliable, more dynamic, with enhanced political steer by member-states, based on objective criteria and rigid, both positive and negative, conditionality, but also reversibility, when the candidate country fails to deliver and backslides in its EU agenda.
The negotiating process starts with the first intergovernmental conference after completion of the so-called screening and opening of the first cluster, Fundamentals, that covers key reform areas under Chapter 23: Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, Chapter 24: Justice, Freedom and Security, economic criteria, functioning of democratic institutions, public administration reform, Chapter 5: Public Procurements, Chapter 18: Statistics, and Chapter: Financial Control.