NEWS OF THE DAY: Funds for political parties reduced by 30 percent
The political parties today with the same position that the Law on Financing Political Parties that was adopted on Saturday provides for a reduction of funds anticipated for political parties by up to 30 percent for this and next year.
-This is with a consensus of all political parties, except of one that was against that reduction proposed by the other political parties. Certainly, SDSM as a responsible political party, both in the previous period and in the government led by SDSM, has showed in the spirit of solidarity that it is always prepared for the government to help the citizens by providing funds that have covered citizens of the most vulnerable categories with the previous three sets of measures, and now the fourth set of measures is due, said Nikolovski.
CIVIL reminds of the initiative for termination of the privileges of officials, which it started in 2019. The initiative was supported by six thousand citizens in an online petition that the organization started.
STATEMENT OF THE DAY: CIVIL has been fighting disinformation for years, the alarm has also reached the European Parliament
“For years CIVIL has been fighting, publishing and talking about fake news, hybrid attacks against democracy and disinformation, but we needed the European Parliament to come and tell us that we have an attack against democracy and by this just confirming our findings”, said Xhabir Deralla, the President of CIVIL, at the Morning Briefing, talking about the latest study and official document of the European Parliament “Mapping fake news and disinformation in the Western Balkans”.
“Even the highest European, world institutions and international organizations have continuously referred to the problem of fake news, disinformation and hybrid attacks against democracy, but it has always been put in “silk” diplomatic gloves and has not reached the public. It is a situation in which the international diplomatic vocabulary does not allow direct disclosure, exposure of certain occurrences and figures. Such an approach has provided space for destructive, anti-Western and anti-democratic centers of power to act freely even in the most democratic countries, and by abusing freedom of speech they have managed to penetrate deeply into society.
CIVIL ACTIVITIES
CIVIL is monitoring the early local elections in Stip and Plasnica with 30 mobile observers and will conduct monitoring of the elections that will be held on December 13 in Stip and Plasnica. Part of the observers have been active from the first day the official election campaign started on November 21, and will also monitor the voting of persons infected with Covid-19 that will be held on December 11, and on December 12 when voting of sick persons and persons serving prison sentences will take place. The observers will be monitoring the elections in 16 categories, including compliance to the coronavirus protection measures, corruption, hate speech, spreading of fake news and disinformation.
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FLASH NEWS
According to the Law on Free Legal Aid, a total of 120 requests for secondary legal aid have been submitted to the Ministry of Justice in the first six months of this year, and more than 709 thousand denars have been paid as a reward to 26 lawyers and 34,125 denars to three authorized associations.
President Stevo Pendarovski at today’s conference on the Western Balkans, organized by Friends of Europe, revealed that the Macedonian state leadership has received an offer for membership in the European Economic Community, but that the offer has been rejected as there is no alternative to full EU membership.
The National Bank, according to preliminary assessments, expects for the public debt to be about 60 percent this year, and for it to increase by one to two percentage points next year. It is especially important, according to the Governor of the National Bank, Anita Angelovska Bezhovska, for the budget expenditures to be fully targeted at supporting the growth and potential of the economy.
Over 1.000 natural and legal entities have applied in the five public calls for support to the hospitality and tourism sector that were announced last month by the Ministry of Economy. All who have applied will receive state assistance.
EU Ambassador to North Macedonia David Geer today at a press conference said that what needs to be done now is for the Negotiating Framework for the country to be adopted and for a date to be found for holding an intergovernmental conference between the country and the European Union as soon as possible. Certainly, it is in our and your interest for this date to be scheduled as soon as possible, said Geer.
Increasingly more children are coming to kindergartens and there is no need for closing them in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Minister of Labour and Social Policy Jagoda Shahpaska in the village of Brvenica in Tetovo, where the newly built kindergarten “Sonce” was put into function.
translation: N. Cvetkovska
