Reinvigorating Political Dialogue in Light of Macedonia’s EU Accession Negotiations - Policy Brief No.17/2018

Abstract

The Parliament is and will be playing an important political and scrutinizing role in Macedonia’s EU accession process. All the parliamentary political parties declare themselves in favor of the EU accession process, thus providing political support to the Government in conducting EU-related reforms, at least. In 2017, as part of the 3-6-9 Reform Plan, the Parliament passed a ‘Declaration of speeding up reforms and integration processes for joining EU and NATO’ 1. As with other similar or identical declarations in the past, the Members of Parliament confirm their consensual and non-party dedication to the country’s strategic policy objectives. However, there are many recent and not so recent examples when the Parliament failed to provide this necessary impetus to the accession process. On the contrary, the legislative body was frequently used to undermine and even block the process of adoption of EU-related legislation for political and all sorts of other reasons.