Skopje, 22 July 2026 (MIA) - Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told journalists Wednesday he had an online meeting with the head of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Gert Jan Koopman, discussing the legislation and reforms the country needs to implement by December 2026 as part of the Reform Agenda.

Mickoski said the country continues to implement its obligations.

“Of the ones that were in the grace period, only the Electoral Code remains, while everything else has been implemented. The majority of those in regular procedure have been implemented as well. Today we had an online meeting with Brussels and Mr. Koopman. We discussed the laws and reform steps that are a part of the grace period that expired in December of this year and the ones that are within the December deadline. We are continuing to implement reforms at an unabated pace. Today they also paid us a compliment in a way, noting we are among the first countries beginning to focus on these steps while the others still don’t have that intention,” Mickoski said.

Asked if there will be further attempts to adopt the amendments to the Electoral Code, Mickoski reiterated that opposition parties need to agree on a text that will include an electronic or postal vote by the diaspora.

“That issue is no longer up to us. As we said, the opposition should sit down, reach an agreement, include the diaspora, and we will unconditionally support whatever they agree on. That’s why I urge responsibility and maturity from the leaders of SDSM, Levica, the Democratic Union for Integration and all other formal or informal groups in Parliament,” Mickoski said.

Photo: MIA