English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski stated that the Government is intensively working on fulfilling the steps of the reform agenda within the envisaged grace period, with the expectation that all reforms will be fully completed by December. At a meeting in the Government dedicated to the implementation of the reform agenda, as Mickoski informed, details on the status of the laws in several key areas were presented yesterday, and discussions were held on the ongoing activities, the progress achieved, and the next steps in the realization of the envisaged reforms.
Mickoski informed that four key laws within the Ministry of Public Administration have been completed and are currently in the phase of technical alignment with the European Commission.
I expect that at the technical level, by the end of the month, all matters will be cleared and we will be able to enter parliament at the beginning of December, so that by the end of December these laws will have been passed. That is the law on administrative workers, or the well-known LAS, where we have one or two points on which we are discussing with the European Commission. Then there is the law on employees in the public service or public sector, where we have one or two remarks that we will work on at the technical level this week. The third is on senior management positions, and there we also have one or two remarks, Mickoski stated, answering journalists’ questions after inspecting construction activities in the Municipality of Kisela Voda.
Regarding the new law on weapons, Mickoski clarified that what is being proposed by the Sigma experts, according to our experts and professors of constitutional law, is unconstitutional, and that they had such a discussion yesterday, after which, as he announced, he expects that part to be overcome as well.
Mickoski recalled that the criminal code (CC) and the law on criminal procedure (LCP) have already been sent to Brussels for review and suggestions, pointing out that the appropriate tables will be submitted by Monday at the latest. Regarding the laws on the public prosecution, the Council of Public Prosecutors, and the Judicial Council, the main point, which Mickoski said is a “stumbling block,” are the budget percentages (0.8% of GDP for the judicial budget and 0.5% of the total budget for the public prosecution), for which a compromise has been found and presented to the EC.
Previously we had a meeting with the presidents of the Judicial Council and the Council of Public Prosecutors and we discussed the manner of a gradual increase of the budgets. We reached a compromise, we presented it yesterday at the meeting, and we expect the European Commission to also give its opinion regarding that compromise which we had, Mickoski stated.
Regarding the law on the Academy for judges and prosecutors, Mickoski pointed out that it is also going through the procedure in order to enable the selection of a new generation, and additionally the issues regarding financing are being cleared with the European partners.
Here the problem was the manner of financing practically by the state, because they challenged the manner of financing which comes from the judicial budget, and that is the Academy for judges and prosecutors. We reached a common solution on how to finance it, and it remains for us to clear it with the European Commission. They are requesting that it be taken out of the Ministry of Justice, but previously in another step of the reform agenda which concerns the Ministry of Finance and which is already considered completed and for which we have already received funds, they insist that they be there. On Monday we will send our explanation, and we expect this to be cleared in the course of next week. So that set of laws from justice will also be completed, Mickoski clarified.
In the area of digital transformation, according to Mickoski, stable progress is being recorded and the envisaged steps are being closed, while the Ministry of Transport is awaiting opinions on five laws that bring minor changes to the ITS system in railway and road transport. In the energy sector, Mickoski pointed out, the completion of the two remaining steps is expected in the course of November.
We expect all these reforms that are in the grace period until December 2026 to be completed. We have elaborated them in detail. And as was said by the people from Brussels, we continue to be the true front-runners in that entire process, Mickoski stated.