26 June 2009

Round table “Visa Liberalisation vs. EU Negotiation“ held in the EU InfoCentre

On 26 June, a round table entitled “Visa liberalisation vs. EU accession negotiations“ was organized in the EU InfoCentre in partnership with the NGO Info Centre and the Macedonian Centre for European Training, as part of their project “Time for EU”.

The speakers Ambassador Erwan FOUÉRÉ, Special Representative of the European Union and Head of the Delegation of the European Commission, Antonio MILOSHOSKI, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tito PETKOVSKI from the National Council on EU and Lidija DIMOVA from the Macedonian Centre for European Training analyzed the correlation between the visa liberalization and the progress of the country towards the start of accession negotiations. The panellists at the round table included: Dimitar MIRCEV, Presidential adviser, Ermira MEHMETI, Democratic Union for Integration, Ljubomir FRCKOVSKI, analyst, Bobi HRISTOV, TV Alsat, Borjan JOVANOVSKI, Eurozum, Biljana SEKULOVSKA, TV A1, Marija RISTESKA, Centre for Research and Polycu Making.

Ambassador FOUÉRÉ pointed out that the visa liberalization is an excellent example of what can be achieved when there is political will to meet the criteria. “Still, visa liberalization is not the final goal but an additional impetus for the further work that needs to be done” said Ambassador FOUÉRÉ. He stressed that the country needs to increase the efforts on the implementation of the rest of the EU reform agenda especially in the field of anti-corruption policy, judicial and public administration reforms in order to achieve the recommendation for start of the accession negotiations.
Minister Miloshoski said that the successful meeting of the criteria for visa liberalization is a result of the joint commitment of the EU and the country to this process, and emphasized that the process of meeting the visa liberalization criteria has a motivating effect for the Macedonian institutions.
The participants generally agreed that the visa liberalization is welcomed but that obtaining recommendation for start of accession negotiations remains highest priority.