The Government euphoric about NATO, optimist about EU negotiations
North Macedonia at yesterday’s NATO summit stood side by side as an equal and almost full member, with all the leaders of the Alliance, and was welcomed and greeted as such, with a promise from Madrid for ratification soon. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev had the opportunity in the past two days in London to exchange thoughts also with French President Emmanuel Macron, who in October blocked the start of negotiations of North Macedonia with the EU, conditioning it with a deep reform of the negotiation process.
Asked if in the talks with Macron he had received positive news for possible unblocking of the process in the next months, Zaev said that he believes in good news soon, but with “realistic” optimism.
-I am convinced that a good decision is following, a good time for us, I cannot share anything because as the greatest optimist, I am now a realistic optimist. Things are moving in a positive direction, we need to keep working, to continue with reforms and I hope that the right decision will be made, that is, that the historic mistake they made will be corrected, I do not want to be sharing optimism with this, we do need to be committed to Europeanising Macedonia with more values and reforms as soon as they decide to inform us. Stated yesterday Prime Minister Zaev.
Ministry of Justice: Termination of Article 11a will not affect pardons
The Ministry of Justice today announced that if the Constitutional Court annuls or terminates Article 11a of the Law on Pardoning, that it will not affect the pardons, after yesterday parliamentary Legislative Committee confirmed they are invalid.
– Article 11a is before the Constitutional Court, while the authentic interpretation is for Article 11. If the Constitutional Court annuls or cancels 11a, it will not affect the pardons, as yesterday the Parliament confirmed that they are invalid, namely, given to a non-existing article, and are not valid from the moment of their issuance, is stated from the Ministry of Justice in relation to the decision of the Constitutional Court and the Report of the Legislative Committee.
Mancevski: The employments have nothing to do with the announced elections
There have always been and will be employments, and they are in accordance to the annual programs and needs of the institutions. They have nothing to do with the elections. It concerns a regular activity that was present even when there were no elections announced, stated today Minister of Information Society and Administration, Damjan Mancevski.
Employments will also continue in the future, and this was happening even when there were no elections announced, said Mancevski, explaining that at the end of each year there are cancellations of temporary employment contracts, because they are planned with the budget for that year, but that for the following year, should the institutions have a need, new job announcements for temporary employments are announced.
Flash news
Deskoska in Strasbourg: “El Masri” case closed – all obligations fulfilled
– The efforts of the Government and the Ministry of Justice in prevention of torture and inappropriate treatment, as well as in preventing their impunity, were recognized by the Committee by closing the supervision over the “El Masri” case, and lowering the level of supervision over the “Hajrulahu” case. In the “El Masri” and “Hajrulahu” cases, the Strasbourg Court determined, among else, also violation of Article 3 of the Convention, announced the Ministry of Justice.
Zaev: Ratification in Spain is expected next month, if it is postponed, conditional ratification is possible in our country, but according to procedure
According to information received from the authorities of the Republic of North Macedonia, the ratification of the NATO Accession Protocol is expected to be finalized in the Spanish Parliament next month, after which our Parliament will complete the ratification by the end of next month or eventually by February 11, before the Parliament dissolves. The possible postponing of the ratification in Spain opens the possibility for conditional ratification in our country.
CIVIL activities
On December 10 – International Human Rights Day, at the Museum of the City of Skopje, from 5.30 pm to 11.00 pm, the final night will be held of this year’s edition of the Freedom Festival, with which CIVIL is at the same time celebrating 20 years of its existence.
The last festival night includes a rich multimedia program: performance by avant-garde Foltin, DJ sets of Sonja Ismail, Marga Sol, DJ Dino, activist film-fest of successful stories changing the world, exhibition of photographs and artworks, poetry performances and other surprises.
Opinion
Good morning with Ordanoski – “The umbrella” won!
For a country in which, not so long ago, our grandmothers and grandfathers studied in all possible Balkan languages, depending on which part of the school year which regional force had taken us under their expansionist administration, this is an achievement of epochal character. At one time, we had to kidnap Miss Stone to draw the attention of the world about the anguish of our existence. Now we are drinking tea from porcelain of the British Queen, at the same table with her. (Even though even today it’s still not clear where all the money from the ransom paid for Miss Stone went…).
The Daily Brief was prepared by Diana Tahiri in cooperation with Dehran Muratov, Maja Ivanovska Saso and Ordanoski
Translation: Natasa Cvetkovska
