Memo: Key findings of the 2014 Progress Report on the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The Progress Report on the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is part of the 2014 Enlargement Package adopted by the European Commission on 8 October 2014. In the package, the Commission concluded that accession process was at an impasse. The country continued to sufficiently meet the political criteria for EU membership. The Commission recommended, for the sixth consecutive year, that negotiations should be opened, but regreted the backward steps of the 2013.

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was the first country to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU and had been a candidate country since 2005. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the oldest in the region, on which the Commission had recommended since 2009 a move to the second stage of the association.

• Primary Source

Blog: LSE EuroppBlog, 11.10.14: Cvete Koneska on Macedonia: The report’s criticism is unlikely to be taken seriously by the government http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2014/10/11/experts-react-eu-progress-reports-2014/#Five

Blog: LSE EuroppBlog, 14.02.15: Five minutes with Fatmir Besimi: ‘Macedonia’s wire-tapping scandal is taking the country in the opposite direction of where it needs to go’ http://bit.ly/1D6OJ6i

European Commission: DG Enlargement: Countries preparing to join: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/countries/detailed-country-information/former-yugoslav-republic-of-macedonia/index_en.htm

openDemocracy: Can Europe Make It?, 13.02.15: Casino Macedonia: of spies, traitors, and patriots https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/elena-b-stavrevska/casino-macedonia-of-spies-traitors-and-patriots

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