The future of enlargement on the table at EU ministerial meeting
EU Ministers of Foreign and European Affairs today for the first time since France’s blockade in October, returned to the Western Balkans enlargement issue and the negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.
The General Affairs Council that is being held today does not anticipate any specific conclusions, but just an exchange of views between member states and an attempt for coming out of the dead end after Paris blocked negotiations with North Macedonia with the excuse that a reform of the negotiating process is previously needed.
Constitutional judges today to discuss the initiative for statute of limitations for acts of abuse of official position
Constitutional Judges at a collegium will discuss the initiative in regards to Article 353, Paragraph 5 of the Criminal Code, which refers to the statute of limitations for cases or reduction of punishments for cases related to abuse of official position and authorization.
The President of the Constitutional Court Sali Murati yesterday announced that at the collegium they will discuss this initiative in detail and will give their opinion.
There is room for promoting Roma rights
EU integration is not possible without resolving the challenges that the Roma community faces, was emphasized at today’s national conference “Assessment of the progress of the RNM in the implementation of public policies towards the Roma community”.
The Roma are still facing problems in four key areas – education and science, housing, healthcare and culture, despite measures and activities that have been taken and the increase in the budget for their implementation. They also react to the low representation in the public administration, as well as the very small number of managerial positions that persons of this community occupy.
FLASH NEWS
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova today at a meeting in Skopje assessed that our country has shown good results in the fight against corruption, but that transformation of the judicial system is needed in the direction of greater efficiency in their work, in line with European standards and values. At the meeting, announced the government press service, it has been confirmed that a sustainable solution is needed for production of capacities in the judiciary, achieved in a transparent manner and with high professionalism.
Just one percent of citizens in the country can afford to buy a flat or a holiday home, 57 percent have enough funds for food and clothing, 12 percent do not have enough funds for food, 44 percent do not have money for savings. These are the results of the financial literacy study implemented by the research institute – Tim institute, presented today by the Alternative Financial Services Association, which requested the survey.
North Macedonia’s NATO membership has not been called into questioned, it is just that the procedure for ratification of the protocol by all member states of the Alliance needs to be completed, says NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy James Appathurai in an interview for Radio Free Europe.
Without creating mechanisms for youth participation in the decision-making process, as well as encouraging them for active participation, we cannot expect progress and prosperity, and this is a pressing need of every country, said today President Stevo Pendarovski in his address at the concluding conference within the framework of the project “Empowerment of the youth for active participation in the decision-making process”, which was implemented by the Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia and the Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje.
The average monthly net-salary per employee in September 2019 was 25.435 denars, and according to published data by the State Statistical Office it increased by 4.4 percent compared to September last year.
The defendant of Bojan Jovanovski Boki -13, lawyer Saso Dukoski, today at a press conference requested for his client to be urgently hospitalized and to be treated due to serious health problems.
OPINION
“There, that uncivilized trademark of the Greeks (in translation: ‘Macedonia the Great’), in normal circumstances would have us laughing at the nationalist primitivism; however, since we are again entering a cycle of abnormalities, now we also have to deal with the Greek dirty tricks, and also with our national-wise crackers who with renewed enthusiasm claim that the Greeks have supposedly deceived us, that our identity and very existence are being questioned, that they had warned about this on time, but the traitors…!”, writes Saso Ordanoski in today’s column What, exactly, is bothering the French?
“Here, things just won’t budge. The intellectual class in this country of ours, not all of them, is still living in romanticism of some kind of historical ideas that as a fertilizer they are spreading all over the active soil of nationalism and discrimination. Certainly, that kills the potential for prosperity of the young generation that is striving towards European values”, writes Husein Ademi in the column Metastasis of idiotism.
Not an L of Levica, not an L of Lenka, is today’s column of Zoran Ivanov in which he writes “First of all, Levica is not a political party. It is registered as a party, but it actually is a handful of ambitious characters who through the votes of the poorest, just want to get to a privileged state budget official position. Secondly, their party matrix has nothing to do with a left-oriented ideology. They are classic rightists. An ideological product of the Stalinist nihilistic mix. They are only in favour of themselves and against everything. Against integrations with the democratic world, more specifically, against the will of the Macedonian majority in greatest majority”.
Маја Ivanovska
in cooperation with: Angela Petrovska, Saso Ordanoski, Husein Ademi, Zoran Ivanov
Translation: Natasa Cvetkovska
