EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas says that he sees acceleration of reforms in the country across all 51 reform steps, noting that during the grace period they are working together with the government and that 9.5 out of 10 of these will be fulfilled. In regard to the Electoral Code, Rokas says he considers the law to be fundamentally sound and expressed hope that the political parties will reach a consensus.
“We are focused on the 10 steps that were in the grace period and that expired on June 30th. And I must say that we worked really carefully on these 10 steps, directly with the Government, in order to fulfill these steps. I am convinced that most of the work has been completed and that we will have excellent results. As you know, they will be submitted in the next 10 days to the European Commission for a final assessment and the final decision will be made sometime in September, but this is a really good success. However, at the same time, we also had that regular exercise that ended on June 30th of this year, and this is where that one-year grace period begins. And with that, we have good progress, but what is important is that there is progress in all 51 steps. I am really sure that I see acceleration in the reforms, but we need to wait for the final results and the assessment of the European Commission after the summer break,” said Rokas at the promotion of new army equipment in the Ilinden barracks.
Regarding whether the 10 reform steps will be fulfilled, Rokas says that it will be an assessment and that they are working together with the Government “in order to achieve nine, nine and a half”.
“I’m sure that we will have good results, but you must understand that the assessment is actually made by the European Commission,” said the EU ambassador.
