Skopje, 16 September 2022 (MIA) - Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European affairs, who also serves as chief negotiator with the European Union, Bojan Marichikj addressed Friday's explanatory screening on the chapter Statistics, held in Luxembourg, saying statistical data will be a vital part of the negotiations because the country should demonstrate how the aligned legislation is applied in practice, said the Secretariat for European Affairs. "It is in our advantage that we're not starting from scratch because we already held an explanatory meeting in February 2019 before the new enlargement methodology was adopted. I'd also add, as an added value, the fact that after over 25 years, we transposed the adequate statistical legislation into our national legislation working together with the Commission and Eurostat," said Marichikj. He stressed that North Macedonia has achieved a certain level of alignment, which was noted in the reports, adding that during his tenure as justice minister his country after two decades had organized a successful population census, according to Eurostat methodology and standards. "To complete the much prolonged census was one of the key demands by Brussels for North Macedonia and it was welcomed by the European Commission after the findings were revealed," said the Deputy PM Marichikj said that after the pilot agriculture census, organized in June 2022, an agriculture census is planned for October 2023. "Our State Statistical Office has been continuously working on implementing the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice, periodically checking the status of alignment through self-evaluation. Another important achievement the State Statistical Office worked on throughout 2022 was the 2023-2027 Statistical Research Program, designed to strengthen the statistical system in the country by including more institution, which is near completion," Marichikj said before Eurostat officials. Deputy PM and Chief Negotiator Marichikj before the explanatory screening, together with State Statistical Office head Apostol Simovski and the Secretariat's state secretary Abdiu Haliki met with Eurostat Deputy Director-General Gallo Gueye to discuss the activities of the State Statistical Office to easily address future challenges when transferring data from the European Statistical System as part of the EU accession process, said the press release.