Accession negotiations for North Macedonia in the EU
EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn today announced that the European Commission has recommended the Council of Ministers to open accession negotiations with Albania and with North Macedonia. EU Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, at today’s press conference at the headquarters of the Delegation of the European Union in Skopje, stated that it’s not just about a usual progress report, but that it’s a report on the fulfilled conditions set by the EU member states last year in June.
During the press conference following the release of the progress reports of the Western Balkan countries, Federica Mogherini stressed that North Macedonia and Albania are prepared to start membership negotiations with the EU. What follows, according to Mogherini, is for the EU to fulfil its part.
“They have done their part and now the EU needs to fulfil its part. The discussions are now in the member countries, whether they are prepared to start the negotiations. It’s a complicated process”, said Mogherini.
Census
Following the adoption of the Draft Law on the Census of the Population, which anticipates a census of the population, households and flats next year from April 1-21, with a budget of eight and a half million euros, at a government session, Apostol Simovski, Director of the State Statistical Office stated that it is planned for the state to be divided in 45 census regions, and for 6000 census workers to participate in the entire operation. The census will be implemented according to high standards that Eurostat imposes, hence avoiding all possibilities for abuse. The software solution that would be developed will recognize personal data of citizens who have already been registered once, thus disenabling a citizen to be registered twice. In practice, this means that there will be a census with the assistance of a web application and field census workers.
People in the diaspora will be registered only electronically, meaning funds won’t be allocated for sending census workers outside the country.
Gruevski case
With 5 votes for, none against and without abstention, the commission for mandatory-immune issues voted to propose to the Parliament for Nikola Gruevski’s MP mandate to be revoked. VMRO-DPMNE MP’s didn’t vote neither “for”, nor “against” the proposal, nor where they abstained. The proposal should find itself in a plenary session where the Parliament will make a decision on whether to revoke Gruevski’s mandate. A two-thirds majority is needed for this to happen.
“Bombs”
On the social network Facebook, eight new audio recordings have appeared in the last 12 hours, on a Facebook profile called “El Cheka“. Some of them are repeated, so there are actually six “bombs”. The bombs are in Albanian, except for one that is in Macedonian and for which the person publishing it claims is between former Minister of Interior and former Director of UBK, Gordana Jankulovska and Saso Mijalkov.
Social Security
With the Law on Social Security of the Elderly, which is part of the social reform and has already entered into force, we are socially providing persons over the age of 65 who don’t have other sources of existence. The monthly payment for these persons is 6000 denars, and about 6000 citizens are expected to use this right. All persons who have been citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia for at least 15 years and who don’t receive a pension, including also persons without a day of work service, have the right to this social security benefit.
For households where both the husband and wife fulfil the conditions for using the social security benefit, only one member will use the benefit because it’s a social security right and not related to pension and disability insurance.
International Day for Protection of Children
On the occasion of June 1 – International Day for Protection of Childrin, the traditional International Charity Bazaar will be held on Saturday, organized by “Welcome” Macedonia Welcome Center – DMWC and in cooperation with 27 embassies and international organization in our country. The Bazaar will be held on Saturday in the City Shopping Center in Skopje, starting at 11 am.
CIVIL changes date for awarding citizen journalists
CIVIL has changed the date for the awarding ceremony for citizen journalism to June 5 (Wednesday), due to the busy agenda with activities. More details about the activities and events that are planned for next week will be given in an announcement tomorrow, informs CIVIL.
B. Jordanovska
