Skopje Denies Claims of New EU Benchmarks

“If new benchmarks existed, we would have received them,” the current minister for EU affairs, Vasko Naumovksi told media. “They would have been announced by the EU itself,” he pointed out.
 
It would be wrong to mix the EU's constant recommendations for the speeding up of certain reforms with new benchmarks, an unnamed diplomat from the delegation of the European Commission told local Makfax news agency yesterday.

The EC set eight benchmarks for Macedonia in February 2008, most of which targeted legal reforms. This autumn it assessed that the eight benchmarks had largely been met and recommended the start of accession talks.

The EC diplomat noted that Macedonia should continue implementing reforms in judiciary, public administration and the fight against corruption, but that the European Commission report from last autumn still stands.

Bocevski resigned in June last year from the government of the current prime minister, Nikola Gruevski. After staying silent for some time he recently joined the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, LDP.

At a recent press conference he claimed that the new short-term criteria for the country, given to Skopje at the end of 2009, include the full implementation of judicial reforms, the clearing of the electoral list of voters who are not in the country or are deceased in order to ensure better regularity, the implementation of the Ohrid Peace Accord throughout the country and other requirements which, according to him, have not been met.