Howitt: ‘Macedonia Must Not be Forgotten in Balkans’

MEP Richard Howitt | Photo by:: European Parliament

Speaking today at the presentation of this year's EU Progress Report in Brussels, Howitt said that despite criticism in some areas, Macedonia should be given “just recognition” for the progress it has made this year in doing reforms.

“The country must not be forgotten as steps towards EU accession are made across the whole of the Western Balkans” the rapporteur said.

“Just as all of the region's Ministers of European Integration are being convened in Skopje next week,” he added “the country in which they are meeting must not itself be forgotten in the process”.

Today the Commission retained its recommendation for EU accession talks for Macedonia, a recommendation extended for third year in a row but not yet implemented due to a longstanding name dispute with neighbouring Greece which has blocked its progress.

The Commission also recommended granting Serbia a candidate country status and starting Montenegro’s accession talks.

The MEP further urged the European Commission to acknowledge the recent start of talks between the Macedonian government and the journalists’ union in Macedonia, after a summer marred by closures of key media stations and increased concerns over media freedom in the country.

This week Macedonian Vice Prime Minister Teuta Arifi and several other ministers commenced direct talks with the journalists’ union to in the hope of overcoming problems.

Addressing the EU enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, Howitt said: "will he agree with me that the commitment of the Deputy Prime Minister to work to implement the recommendations of the OSCE representative on Freedom of the Media is an important response, which should be supported in the country as well as by ourselves in the European Union?"

In the report the Commission concludes that editors and journalists face increasing political pressure in Macedonia.

The rapporteur also commented on recent developments surrounding the population census saying they “must not affect the multi-ethnic Ohrid framework agreement” that brought peace to the country back in 2001 after a short-lived armed conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels and security forces.
 
This Tuesday the head count in the country suffered a fiasco. The entire census commission tasked with coordinating the census filed resignations and stopped the nationwide operation. The reason was that the ethnic Macedonian majority in the commission and the Albanian members in it could not agree on the methodology for collecting data.

Howitt said there needed to be a strong message for continued progress across the whole of the Western Balkans.

Next week Macedonia will host a regional ministerial conference dedicated to the process of EU integration of the region.