12 November 2003

Speaker: H.E. Radmila Šekerinska, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia

Deputy Prime Minister Radmila Šekerinska spoke today on the twin goals of integration--on the part of EU pre-accession states--and commitments--on the part of the EU--emphasising Macedonia’s intention to apply for EU accession ’soon’. She insisted that Macedonia’s commitment to reform is high, irrespective of the challenges.

Ms. Šekerinska’s opened her discussion by commenting on the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Thessalonica in June 2003, noting that the EU had been careful to lower expectations for the summit. Although this is a common tactic when the EU is unprepared to make a decision, she was optimistic in her assessment of the summit. Thessalonica emphasised that the future of the Western Balkan countries is in the EU and structured the Stabilisation and Accession Process (SAP) for those countries, offering European Partnerships which will both identify priorities and obligations for pre-accession countries to meet and direct EU funding to those efforts.
Ms. Šekerinska noted that the challenge of Thessalonica is to keep up both the momentum and the commitments. For its part, Macedonia has committed itself to implement the recommendations of the annual reports, present and future, as based on the European Partnerships, although it will only be ’contacted’ about those recommendations rather than ’consulted’.
Macedonia is currently working towards fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria and the conditions of the SAP reports. In her remarks, Ms Šekerinska pointed out that Macedonia first made reference to the Copenhagen Criteria in February of 1998, in the parliament’s declaration on "Improvement of the Relations with the European Union", but since then its prospects for integration have risen and fallen with the increase of ethnic tensions in the country. Macedonia now sees itself as the first successful case of EU common foreign and security policy, and in December the EU military mission there will be replaced by a police mission.
Last year’s elections also gave a hopeful sign for Macedonia’s EU integration, showing support for reconciliation and the Ohrid Framework Agreement (FA). The government’s priorities for 2003 have been implementation of the FA, fighting corruption and organised crime and implementation of the IMF arrangement. The success of the FA is allowing Macedonia to focus its political energies on social cohesion, and gives hope that the ’Macedonian Model’ works.
The Deputy Prime Minister indicated that in turn the EU has been very cautious in its own promises. She remarked that its financial commitment has been below expectations, it has maintained an unjustifiable control over the SAP process, and the five EU agents in Macedonia for disbursing aid constitute a bureaucratic barrier.
Macedonia has decided to apply for membership to the EU ’soon’ in order to take control of the EU agenda, a decision it has been considering openly since Croatia formally applied in February 2003. Ms. Šekerinska commented on Macedonia’s European identity and values, and declared that a structured accession process will be both beneficial and necessary to Macedonia’s reform process. The upcoming enlargement will bring the EU to Macedonia’s borders, heightening the strain of the visa regime and highlighting the need for work in Justice and Home Affairs. In this spirit, the EU police mission PROXIMA will begin in the beginning of 2004, part of the Strategy on Police Reform.
In conclusion, Deputy Prime Minister Šekerinska characterised enlargement of the EU and Europeanisation of the Balkans as two sides of the same coin. EU and Balkan politicians should resist succumbing to ’enlargement fatigue’ and calls for a slowing down of Europeanisation. Rather, they should promote a dual vision of keeping up the momentum of enlargement and delivering on commitments.