Gov’t adopts negotiating structure for North Macedonia’s accession negotiations with EU
Skopje, 5 September 2022 (MIA) - The Government at a session on Monday adopted a structure for North Macedonia’s accession negotiations with the European Union. In addition to Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski and members of the Government, Head of the EU Delegation in North Macedonia, David Geer, also attended and addressed the session.
“Of particular importance in further defining the activities that will follow was the adoption of a revised structure for North Macedonia’s accession negotiations with the European Union, which provides the coordination mechanism for the negotiations with the Union. The report with a proposal for revision of the coordination mechanism of the Republic of North Macedonia for accession negotiations with the European Union and the Decision on establishing a structure for the negotiations was unanimously adopted by the members of the Government,” the Government said in a press release.
The new negotiating structure includes a chief negotiator, i.e. Deputy PM for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj, and a deputy, i.e. State Secretary for European Affairs and Chairperson of the Stabilization and Association Committee, Drita Abdiu Halili.
According to the Government, in addition to a chief negotiator and a deputy, the negotiating structure also includes a negotiations committee, chaired by the government and PM Dimitar Kovachevski, four deputy premiers, the foreign minister and the finance minister. It also includes a state delegation for negotiations, helmed by Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani as head of the delegation.
The negotiating structure also includes a negotiations group made up of a chief economist, chief legal expert and a chief anti-corruption expert. A working committee on European integration and working groups for accession talks, as auxiliary bodies divided into clusters, three areas and 33 chapters, have been also set up. They will take part in preparing analyses on the level of alignment of the national legislation with the EU’s and draft-negotiating positions. The Secretariat for European Affairs will serve as the only coordination point given the authorization it has as regulated by law.In addition, the Secretariat for European Affairs undertakes to be the depository of all documentation related to the accession negotiations, as well as to have a coordinator in all working groups responsible for the methodological and process aspects and coordination with the other bodies of the negotiating structure. At the same time, the Secretariat for European Affairs takes responsibility for the preparation of the necessary legal acts that will define the procedures of the bodies' operation.