Macedonia Receives Candidate Status

21 December 2005

The Leaders of the European Union agreed to grant Macedonia with the status of candidate for EU membership, at the meeting of the European Council that ended late on Friday night in Brussels. Macedonia did not, however, receive a date for the start of negotiations.

The decision to grant Macedonia the status of candidate was reached only after the Prime Ministers and heads-of-state of the EU agreed on the Union�s Budget for the period 2007-2013.

France and the U.K. were the two principal parties in the dispute over the Budget, fighting over the Budget rebate allocated to Britain (which the French wanted reduced) and the lopsided agricultural subsidies of which French farmers are chief beneficiaries (which, in turn, the British wanted to reduce).

Another important point of conflict over the Budget was the line dedicated to new members and the so-called pre-accession funds, available to candidate countries as support for their structural reforms.

The European Council announced much stricter set of criteria for Macedonia in order to get the date to start negotiations. Macedonia will have to fully reform its judiciary (the most frequent objection coming from Brussels) and consolidate its political and economic system.

For Macedonian politicians, the coming Parliamentary elections will be crucial, especially in terms of the ability of the country to organize and complete elections that will be devoid of any wrongdoing and violence in the campaign and the polling stations.

On Saturday evening, the Macedonian Government organized a huge party, with performances of Macedonian pop-stars, on the Macedonian Square (the central city square) in Skopje.