Following the Intergovernmental Conference, a process will follow that will consist of two sub-phases, namely:
- An updated explanatory screening, in which the European Commission will present the new corpus of EU acquis (legislation) that has been adopted in the EU since 2018/19 and will provide more detailed guidance on how reforms will be monitored in the areas that are formally included in the negotiations for the first time, the functioning of democratic institutions, public administration reform and economic criteria, and approximately 6 weeks later
- a bilateral screening, in which the country will need to present the level of alignment with EU law, the institutional set-up for implementing the aligned laws, and plans for further alignment, building institutional and administrative capacities, as well as the necessary human, financial and IT resources for implementing European standards. At this stage, we will also need to identify any areas/issues for which we would require transition periods.
The calendar of meetings is defined by the European Commission, and based on what was presented to us on Tuesday, at the meeting to open the screening, as the EC's general calendar (which may undergo certain changes), it can be seen that a dynamic period awaits us, given that the process of presenting the new legislation starts in September this year, and in parallel, bilateral screening will take place over a period of about 15 months (i.e. the European Commission plans to complete this process by November 2023).
*Please note that we will receive a definitive calendar of activities after the annual holidays when all Directorates General are consulted and when the calendars of non-working days of MK/ALB/EC are crossed so that there is no overlap
Of course, during this entire period there will be intensive communication between our administration and the services of the European Commission when additional information, reports, implementation statuses, etc. are exchanged, which will aim to enable the Commission to have the most precise and clear picture possible so that it can be appropriately reflected in the Report from the bilateral screening.
According to the announcement - we expect the first screening Report for the Fundamental Values Cluster in the first quarter of 2023.
As I have already mentioned, according to the new methodology, the screening begins with the Fundamental Values Cluster, which opens first and closes last and will actually dictate the dynamics of the entire negotiation process.
This cluster includes five chapters, namely the chapters related to the rule of law - 3.23 Judiciary and fundamental rights and 3.24 Justice, freedom and security, as well as 3.05 Public procurement, 3.18 Statistics and 3.32 Financial control. The cluster also includes new areas that are part of the negotiation process - functioning of democratic institutions, public administration reform and economic criteria. Among the key institutions that will have to implement the reforms are: the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration, etc. but of course the Parliament.
For this cluster, we will need to prepare three roadmaps that will need to reflect the political commitment to implement key strategic reforms by defining short-term and medium-term goals, namely:
- A roadmap for the rule of law (which will also be a criterion for opening the Cluster) that will cover the reforms in Chapters 3.23 Judiciary and fundamental rights and Chapter 3.24 Justice, freedom and security,
- A roadmap for the functioning of democratic institutions (which will not be a criterion for opening the Cluster) that will need to contain measures to strengthen democratic governance at all levels, in relation to the work of the Parliament, the electoral process and increasing citizen participation in democratic processes,
- A roadmap for public administration reform (which will also be a criterion for opening the Cluster) that should focus on building a professional administration at the service of citizens and strengthening administrative capacities for implementing laws and policies that are aligned with European standards.
We were informed that we will soon receive guidance from the European Commission on how these documents should be prepared - guided by the need to be simple, strategic and specific.
The economic criteria will be monitored through the Economic Reform Programme. Based on the outcome of the bilateral screening, benchmarks for some of the other chapters in the Fundamental Values Cluster (Chapter 3.05 Public Procurement, 3.18 Statistics and 3.32 Financial Control) could also be defined.
Additionally, within the framework of the Rule of Law Roadmap - an Action Plan for the Protection of the Rights of Minorities and Communities with measures for non-discrimination, combating hate speech and education will need to be prepared.
I will also present the calendar for holding screening meetings.