14 October 2009

EC recommended opening negotiations for country’s accession to the European Union
Press conference on the 2009 Progress Report and the Enlargement Strategy held at the EU InfoCentre in Skopje

The European Union Mission in Skopje held a press conference announcing the Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2009-2010 and the 2009 Progress Report for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Enlargement strategy and the Progress Report were presented by Ambassador Erwan FOUÉRÉ and Patrick PAQUET, Head of Political and Information Section. The Deputy Prime Minister Vasko NAUMOVSKI and the country’s Special Representative for EU Dejan GJORSOSKI also attended the press conference.
The Progress Report is a document in which the Commission services monitor and assess the achievements of each of the candidate and potential candidate countries over the last year. The "enlargement package" of information contains also a multi-annual financial framework setting out the financial assistance available to support the reform efforts of the candidate and potential candidates over the next years.
In this year's recommendations, the Commission recommended that negotiations for accession to the European Union should be opened with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.