The Secretary of State at the Secretariat for European Affairs, Kalinka Gaber, today opened the inaugural event under the national project of Statistics Sweden and the State Statistical Office entitled as “Increased availability and use of official statistics in North Macedonia”.

In the context of celebrating October 20 – European Statistics Day, Secretary of State Gaber pointed out that the area of “Statistics” as part of Chapter 18 of the EU acquis is of great importance in terms of the process of economic governance and accession negotiations with the EU, given that it belongs to the “Foundations” cluster that is opened first and closed last while setting the pace of the accession process. 

State Secretary Gaber: “Statistical reforms are crucial to the development of sound socio-economic policies. Sectoral statistics should provide a basis for planning of reforms under all chapters of the accession process, which is why these types of projects that provide exchange of expertise and knowledge have an important contribution not only to strengthening the administrative capacity of relevant institutions, but also to providing input for as successful negotiations as possible.”

Referring to the level of readiness and progress under this chapter, Gaber specified that the national statistical infrastructure is already largely in line with the EU standards based on principles such as data impartiality, reliability, transparency and confidentiality, as well as official results dissemination.

State Secretary Gaber: “The National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis Communautaire (NPAA), as a comprehensive strategic and planning document of North Macedonia in its EU integration process, envisages short-term and medium-term activities for progressive collection of comparable statistical data and their transfer to the European Statistical System. The harmonization with the EU acquis is only the first step; transposed policies and standards need to be implemented in the light of full harmonization, including through projects like the one we are inaugurating today.”

The Ambassador of Sweden Kristin Forsgren Bengtsson, the National Bank Governor Anita Angelovska-Bezoska, the directors of partner institutions – Apostol Simovski from the State Statistical Office of North Macedonia and Joakim Stymne from Statistics Sweden – also spoke at the event emphasizing their support and commitment to the successful implementation of this project.