2nd Meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee EU - former Yugoslav Republic Macedonia (FYROM)
On 25 February the 2nd Meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee EU - former Yugoslav Republic Macedonia was held in Scopje under the co-chairing of Sašo Klekovski and Vladimíra Drbalová. The meeting was attended on behalf of the former Yugoslav Republic Macedonia by Vasko Naumovski, Deputy Prime Minister, and Xhelal Bajrami, Minister of labour and social policy, EU was represented by H.E. Erwan Fouéré, Head of the EU delegation in Skopje.
In the introductory part of the meeting Xhelal Bajrami and Erwan Fouéré evaluated a state of play of the country on its way to the EU and stated that the year 2009 was in this respect very successful for the country. In October 2009 the country moved to the second period of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the progress report was positive and the European Commission gave its green light for commencing of the negotiations, on 19 December the visa regime was lifted. Also the year 2010 started successfully. On 10 February the European Parliament backed the recommendation of the European Commission to open the negotiations and on 19 February 2010 a new Commissioner Štefan Füle visited Skopje having encouraged the government to progress „in European spirit“.
The afternoon´s part of the meeting was focused on the discussion based on the reports of Lidija Grupcheva and Guiseppe Iuliano on the economic and social rights. Discussion with the members of the Joint Consultative Committee, observers and invited representatives of the civil society organisations showed that the government still doesn´t respect civil society in the country sufficiently, Social Council as the highest tripartite body didn´t organise any meeting during two years, mistrust between the social partners and the government persists and the progress in the field of employment and social affairs is limited.
The conclusions of the 2nd Meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee and a press release
Vladimíra Drbalová
International Organisations and EU Affairs
Member of the EESC
