On Monday 20 November, European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn called on the opposition parties in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to show responsibility as regards the reforms the country needs to adopt to be able to move forward on its European path.
"I urge all the opposition parties to play their role. The opposition must be critical, but in addition it must have constructive criticism in order to respect all the deadlines set to make the necessary progress", Hahn stated at a press conference with Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. The Macedonian parliament is due to vote on important reforms on regulation and the judicial apparatus, intelligence services and the public administration, and some require a qualified majority or two thirds. "We need concrete results, not only announcements, by the end of the year", Hahn warned. "It is important for the opposition to play its role and for it to be quite responsible (...) When we speak of national objective (...), it is clear that it can only be reached if everyone pulls in the same direction", Hahn stated.
Saying that significant progress had already been made, Hahn nevertheless considered that the country was mid-way to obtaining the opening of accession negotiations. "I would like to have a positive recommendation early next year", he said, adding that he had seen a positive climate on this subject in the member states. According to Macedonian press agency Mia, Zaev hoped his country would be part of the EU strategy on the Western Balkans that is planned for February 2018. "We hope to obtain a clear recommendation for EU accession and a date for launching the access negotiations. We must obtain results [Ed: on the reforms] (...) but we await an appropriate assessment of the EU institutions" on the results, he said, adding it was "high time" the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia took a step forwards in its integration, after a long political crisis. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)