The Minister of European Affairs, Orhan Murtezani, in his role as National IPA Coordinator (NIPAC), today co-chaired the Third Meeting of the Monitoring Committee for the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance IPA III, highlighting the current political and technical challenges related to the efficient use of European funds.
Minister Murtezani stressed that this Government will take important initiatives to stabilize the IPA structures and to address the legacy problems of the previous period, including the high fluctuation of professional staff, delayed public procurement procedures and significant concessions in the transport and environment sectors. He underlined that by the end of 2024, the contracted funds for IPA II had reached 71%, while the utilization of IPA III funds in the same year was at a level of 31.37%. The Minister pointed out the importance of intensifying the implementation of ongoing programs in order to avoid underutilization of IPA funds in the future.
Murtezani also addressed the measures to strengthen administrative capacities and announced intensive engagement for a systemic solution to the policies for retention and continuous training of civil servants. He indicated that the Ministry of European Affairs is working on establishing an EU Academy, whose task will be to provide quality and sustainable training for the staff engaged in the IPA structure.
The meeting was also chaired by Valentina Superti, Director at the Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST) at the European Commission, who addressed the importance of clearly defined obligations and activities to overcome the current challenges in the management of IPA programmes.
The IPA Monitoring Committee is the highest supervisory body for all IPA programmes and is tasked with ensuring effective, transparent and harmonised implementation of European pre-accession assistance in North Macedonia, in accordance with the Framework Agreement for Financial Partnership between the European Commission and the Republic of North Macedonia.
