‘Jean Monnet’ dialogue: Parliamentary parties committed to reforms

At the first meeting under the ‘Jean Monnet’ initiative, representatives of Macedonia’s parliamentary parties agreed Friday in Ohrid to promote, advance the country’s EU accession process and contribute to implementing institutional reforms, including those that refer to the highest legislative body.

MPs are ready to nourish the spirit of dialogue and compromise, as well as to strengthening the legislative, supervising capacities of the Parliament, as vital elements for the country’s EU membership, read the conclusions of the meeting.

‘In order to preserve the reform momentum, we have agreed to introduce an instrument for implementation that would ensure for an achieved political consensus to be conveyed to the respective parliament bodies,’ the conclusions read.

The MPs also reached consensus on four key spheres related to the Parliament’s work, namely the need of drafting a Code of Ethics on the MPs behavior at and out of the assembly; reforming of the Rule of Procedure; introducing of proper instruments for implementing of what’s agreed within the Dialogue and the further cooperation of the Macedonian with the European Parliament on administrative level, which would include an exchange of best practices and technical expertise.

The first meeting under the process, dubbed ‘Jean Monnet’ Dialogue, initiated by MEPs Ivo Vajgl, Knut Fleckenstein and Eduard Kukan to raise the level of dialogue among the political actors in the country and their interaction with European colleagues, is to be crowned late Friday with a working dinner, which should be also attended by the leaders of parliamentary parties – SDSM – Zoran Zaev; VMRO-DPMNE – Hristijan Mickovski; DUI – Ali Ahmeti; DPA – Menduh Thaci; the Alliance of Albanians – Zijadin Sela and BESA – Bilal Kasami. Sergei Stanishev, President the Party of European Socialists (PES), is set to deliver a speech at the dinner.

The gathering under the Jean Monnet process is also considered to be part of the country’s reforms, since issues related to the Parliament are incorporated in the Government’s Plan 3-6-9.