Assembly hosts two‑day conference "Regional cooperation for EU integration"

The Assembly of North Macedonia is hosting a two-day conference titled "Regional cooperation for EU integration" today and tomorrow, focused on the role of effective parliamentary oversight in advancing countries' EU accession processes.

Programme and opening remarks

Opening addresses are scheduled from Marina Dimovska, General Secretary of the Assembly; Antonio Milososki, Vice‑President of the Assembly; Bekim Sali, Minister for European Affairs; and Jan‑Aksel Fos, Chargé d'Affaires of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Today’s sessions start with a panel on the role of Western Balkan parliaments in the accession process: recent developments at European and regional level. Giulio Veneri, Deputy Head of the Unit for Strategy and Coordination on Enlargement, DG ENEST, Unit A1, European Commission, will speak, alongside representatives of delegations from Western Balkan countries. The session will combine the Commission’s strategic perspective with regional updates from participating delegations.

The second session, "Parliaments as drivers of cooperation: the importance of parliamentary contribution to strengthening regional cooperation", features Maja Ribar‑Sarkinovic, Political Adviser at the Regional Cooperation Council, and Ana Krstinovska, Executive Director of Estima, followed by a joint discussion.

Further panels today will review the implementation of principles of effective parliamentary oversight in the EU integration process. Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, an expert with GIZ, will address legislative and oversight functions, and Demush Shasha, also a GIZ expert, will speak on parliamentary diplomacy, administrative capacities, communication and visibility. The final session of the day, "In focus: successful parliamentary practices", will include contributions from Demush Shasha and delegation representatives from the Western Balkans.

Tomorrow two sessions are planned. The first, "Guardians of reform processes: How to strengthen parliamentary oversight of the reform agenda?", will feature Simonida Katsarska, Director of the Institute for European Policy, and aims to examine strategies and tools to bolster parliaments’ role in monitoring reform implementation. The second, "From policy documents to reality: possible scenarios for the new course of the enlargement process", will be presented by Aleksandar Andrija Pejović and will review current EU policy debates and possible methodological changes to enlargement, with a discussion on potential impacts for the process. Closing remarks and formal closure follow after the two sessions.

Photo: press material from the event