At the moment I can say that one of the biggest political parties did not adhere to what is agreed and does not respect any deadlines, which is unacceptable when conducting negotiations and reaching a final agreement.
This was the statement by the Belgian facilitator Peter Van Houte before the start of today’s round of negotiations for the appointing of a special prosecutor, between the four political parties who have signed the Przhino Agreement.
Mr Van Houte told reporters before today’s round of negotiations that they face a problem that is associated with two things.
He showed a sheet of paper, which was written in English and Macedonian and said, “your word is everything.”
“Generally when entering negotiations, what you say, you stick to it, your word is everything. If you come to an agreement about something with a deadline, you stick to that schedule. Currently one of the major political parties do not respect the deadline and are not honouring the agreement”, said Mr Van Houte.
Showing another sheet of paper on which was written “accountability” in English and Macedonian, he said that the second part of the problem was even greater, and relates to accountability.
“We in Europe have a system of values, and I think that countries that are EU candidates should respect that system of values, of which most important is accountability. This means that every public official has an official duty in a responsible way to announce what he did, for citizens to decide whether it will be accepted or rejected. If there are any suspicions of abuse of power or embezzlement of public funds, they should be investigated and prosecuted regardless of who they are. It is one of the values which we expect to be respected and we hope one day, those values will be part of your society”, said Mr Van Houte.
When asked by journalists which political party he was referring to, Mr Van Houte replied, that it was the journalist’s job to find out.
He stated that there was a draft version of the legal decision based on how to choose the special public prosecutor, which will be discussed at today’s meeting .He also said that today’s topic will be the names of potential candidates for the special prosecutor position.
When asked if the parties fail to reach an agreement over the special prosecutor, will the EU appoint the prosecutor, Mr Van Houte said all options were possible
