The European Commission (EC) in the short report released on Monday recommends that the European Union (EU) start accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania. Among the highlights, EC points out that North Macedonia has taken decisive steps to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, improved its performance in the fight against corruption and organized crime and also advanced in the reforms of the intelligence sector and the public administration. Special attention was paid to the Transparency Strategy of the Government of North Macedonia, which was one of the main pillars of the reform of the public administration.
This Strategy emerged as a result of the recommendations from #OpennessIndex , and Metamorphosis Foundation was one of the main contributors and creators of the Strategy through the #ACTIONSEE project, financed by the European Union and facilitated with expert help and finances by the Open Society Macedonia Foundation.
The short report by the EC also highlights the reforms of the judiciary, the intelligence sector and the public administration. Speaking about the judiciary, this report by the European Commission recognizes increased implementation of the reforms.
Integral part of that is also the new Law on the Public Prosecution, which EC sees as a warranty for establishing the rule of law and that the cases of the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office will come to full conclusion with final court rulings. The European Commission also recognizes enhanced reforms of the intelligence and security services, with special emphasis on the new law, but also on the launch of the Operational Technical Agency (OTA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The report recognizes enhanced oversight capacities within the services, but also capacities for oversight by Parliament. Concerning the public administration reforms, there is special acknowledgement of the government activities for enhancing transparency, resulting in the 2019-2021 Transparency Strategy, but also with the introduction of databases for the sake of greater transparency and the digitalization efforts (E-portal), facilitating citizens’ access to the services of the institutions.
