English
Austrian member of the European Parliament Thomas Waitz clarified his remarks in an interview he did with a Bulgarian journalist, in which he said that Macedonia is not implementing reforms. The rapporteur for Macedonia said that he did the interview seven weeks ago and that Macedonia has made progress since then, but the outlet chose to air the interview now.
The interview includes the estimate of the situation at the beginning of March. I don’t think it’s very professional that the interview was published now, I was told it would be otherwise. I was a little surprised that it aired a few days ago. But, unfortunately, it seems there was some agenda behind it, Waitz said in an interview with Kanal 5.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that the clarification made by Waitz leaves no room for interpretation, and that it clearly notes that the Government is implementing reforms.
He very clearly explained whta he has to say and I will warn the public to take all interpretations (from the SDSM party) with a grain of salt. That political party is currently not fighting for the citizens but for its own leadership. That is their political strategy, said Prime Minister Mickoski.
The Prime Minister said that there are 10 steps that the EU wants to see implemented by the end of June, and that two or three of them are off the table. Some include liberalization of the energy market which, Mickoski said, will cause prices to spike 30 to 40 percent. But all other issues are being implemented.
The Prime Minister also said that the European Union unblocked the IPARD funds, that were temporarily frozen after a corruption investigation in a commission linked to the Agriculture Ministry that was approving these funds.