English
Our strategy is to be the best in class, and that is what we will do, even thought that is not valued, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski about the reform agenda that is part of the EU accession process that is stalled due to the dispute with Bulgaria.
The Prime Minister said that bilateral disputes should not be an obstacle to EU membership. “If someone thinks that, there is nothing we can do about it”, Mickoski added.
The Prime Minister discussed some of the 12 steps of the reform agenda that the EU calls for – for example, he said, a law on energy is adopted and is implemented, but it is not considered as a completed step because there are still bylaws to be implemented, which carry with them long grace periods.
Our other option is to begin to liberalize the electricity market for households on the regulated market. We will not do that, for the simple reason that it will carry at least a 35 percent increase for the households. And we will consciously not do that, the Prime Minister said.
On the issue of judicial reform, the Prime Minister said that the judges and prosecutors put as their main demands that the hiring and promotion of staff is not dependent on the opinion of the executive. “We will accept that. They can prepare their proposal and have it approved by the Judicial Council and the Council of Prosecutors, and we will adopt it. As far as the budget goes, we will set the lower budget threshold, that will definitely be higher than the average or median budget of the member states of the Council of Europe, Mickoski added.
