Update to the contribution to the progress report on the process of accession of the republic of macedonia to the european union

I POLITICAL CRITERIA

(Activities not included in key priorities are noted)
ELECTIONS

The parliamentary elections for 120 deputies from 1540 candidates of 18 confirmed lists were held on the 1 June with a voter turnout of 58%. The SEC decided to hold re-runs of the elections in 187 polling stations with 162.000 voters in the election districts I, II and VI, in election polls where irregularities were noted. The first re-run was held on the 15 June in a peaceful atmosphere. The second re-run for 15 polling stations with approximately 15.000 voters was held on the 29 of June in a peaceful atmosphere. The OSCE noted remarkable improvement with regard to the issue of security on the days of the re-run.

The work of the SEC and the election administration in general was assessed as effective and transparent in terms of addressing complaints arising from the elections.
Following the re-runs, the SEC announced the results of the elections, according to which the coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE won 63 mandates, the coalition led by SDSM 27 mandates, DUI 18 mandates, DPA 11 mandates and the Party for European Future 1 seat in the parliament.
The activities for detecting and sanctioning the perpetrators of the election incidents during the election campaign and during the early parliamentary elections have continued.
The SEC dismissed six presidents of MECs where there were election irregularities on 1 June (Brvenica, Tetovo, Bogovinje, Gostivar, Lipkovo and Saraj) and appointed new presidents for the re-run on 15 June.
The State Election Commission rejected all complaints submitted by the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) after the re-run of the early parliamentary elections.

PDP was the only party to lodge four complaints referring to ten polling places in the Election Districts I and VI.

The MoI undertook activities for assessing the work of the police on the day of the voting and the re-run. Due to determined irregularities 28 police officers have been suspended and against 11 of them criminal charges have been initiated for existent suspicion of having performed criminal acts prevention of elections and voting, unlawful production and handling and trafficking of arms and explosive materials, bribing during elections and voting etc, while one police officer has been charged with a misdemeanour for violating public order.
The public prosecutor’s office has established 68 cases against 375 identified and 5 cases against unknown perpetrators.
The data received from the courts so far indicate the following state of play with the cases linked to the election incidents for the early parliamentary elections 2008:
A total of 34 cases have been registered in the courts related to the election irregularities of 2008. (3 completed and 31 ongoing). Verdicts have been adopted in 3 cases with court sentences ranging from 6 months to 4 years and 10 months,² Total number of perpetrators 149 persons (6 persons sentenced and ongoing procedures for 143). 18 persons are in detention, 103 persons are defending themselves free, while 28 persons are fugitives
All cases related to the election irregularities have been given priority and have been scheduled for September and October 2008.
In September the Government adopted an Action Plan to address the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR report on the early elections held in June 2008. The amendments to the Electoral Code, drafted on the basis of the Action Plan are now subject to discussion including all political parties.


PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

In July 2008 with the amendment of the Law on Organisation and Operation of State Administrative Bodies, the Ministry of Information Society was established for the purpose of developing information society.

At the end of August 2008 as part of the NORMAK project, a draft version of the Evidence Based Policy Making Manual for decision makers and civil servants was prepared.
In July 2008 as part of the Citizen’s Charter initiative, a Report for the results gained from the user evaluation form for the 1^st and 2^nd quarter of 2008 was adopted by the Government.
The Secretariat General continued to conduct the Plan for organising and conducting training in policy development and strategic planning; therefore in the period between June to July 2008, five one-day trainings for 70 civil servants were conducted.
Pursuant to the Program for organising and conducting training in the area of strategic planning, the Secretariat General on 9^th July 2008 conducted a one-day specialised training – workshop for the ministries and the state administrative bodies about the process of preparing strategic plans for the period of 2009-2011. From 25 to 27 August a three-day specialised training was organised - a workshop for the ministries and the state administrative bodies in: creating of the programs in the strategic plans for 2009-2011, establishing measures, activities and assessing the required means for their realisation.
All ministries and state administrative bodies have prepared their Draft strategic plans for 2009-2011 as well as Draft budget accounts for 2009.
On 2 July 2008, a one-day workshop was held on the experience of the implementation of the Law on free access to information, organised by the Commission for protection of the right to free access to information. On the workshop, the new website of the Commission (http://www.komspi.mk) and the manual for the protection of the right to free access to information were promoted. The preparation o the website and the manual was supported by the project supported by the project Technical assistance and raising awareness for supporting the implementation of the Law on free access to information.

In the Review on two years of implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information the Commission presented undertaken activities upon complaints:

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  225 decisions for acceptation of the complaints and oblige the information holders to give the required information
  
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  116 decisions for acceptation of the complaints and decision procedure is repeating
  
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  11 decisions when the complaint is partially accepted
  
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  514 conclusions when the complaint is withdrawn mainly in situation when the Commission itself managed to provide the required information, or document.
  
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  7 complaints issued in August are ongoing.
  

DECENTRALISATION

The process of decentralisation has been running successfully, with 62 (72%) out of 84_municipalities having entered the second phase. Currently there is intensified work towards capacity building of the municipalities and fulfilment of the conditions for the second phase for 90% of the municipalities as well as trainings for capacity building of 9 municipalities to fulfil the conditions for entrance in the 1st phase. The Government expects the process towards total financing of the transferred competences in most of the municipalities to finish by the end of 2008.

In June, a panel discussion on fiscal decentralisation was held. The discussion was centred on the problems of the municipalities which have entered the second phase of fiscal decentralisation and was attended by mayors, representatives of the Ministry of Finance as well as representatives of municipalities.

Lipkovo with Aracinovo, Ohrid with Debarca, Delcevo, Vinica, Pehcevo and Berovo including Cesinovo- Oblesevo and Zrnovci are the municipalities awarded with 4 grants in total amount of 60.000 euros, from the Grant scheme for inter-municipality cooperation of OSCE Mission in Skopje, aimed to support the municipalities during the process of decentralisation and encourage the partnership cooperation among the municipalities.
On 17 July 2008, the Commission on rural development held a meeting on which besides the members also mayors from rural municipalities participated. The Commission discussed many issues including: agricultural land and its importance for the local self-government; the problem of granting concessions, problems of rural municipalities with education, related to transport of students and heating materials supply, irregular and insufficient electricity supply of the rural areas, and an initiative for opening pharmacies in rural areas was raised. It was also pointed out that the municipalities should be included in allocation of state agricultural land, should have insight in data of leased state agricultural land for every municipality, as well as insight in data of state agricultural land which is still not leased. It was proposed that financial means gained from leasing of agricultural land be allocated in proportion 50/50 between the state and the municipality.

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
According to the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, this year Macedonia is ranked 72nd, as compared to the 84th rank in 2007 and 105th in 2006.
The State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, at the session held on the 17.06.2008 decided to initiate a misdemeanour procedure before the competent courts against the 6 former MP’s out of 120 who have not submitted an asset declaration 30 days following the termination of their function, as stipulated in the Law on prevention of corruption.
In addition, the Commission adopted a conclusion that the failure to submit the assets declarations fulfils the necessary conditions for the Public Revenue Office to submit individual requests for initiating a procedure for examination of the property situation against these persons in accordance with this Law.

The Rulebook on the manner of proceeding with the declarations of assets was adopted (Official Gazette of RM, No. 89/08) which is a bylaw form the Law on prevention of corruption.
Law on managing the confiscated property, material benefit and confiscated property in criminal and misdemeanour procedure (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia”, No.98/08) was adopted in order to approximate this matter with the international standards as one of potential sources of corruption, as well as to create appropriate legislative framework for managing the confiscated property which was until now done in a not proper manner. This law is a part of the reforms of the criminal legislation, which will be conducted in two phases. The issue of confiscation included in the Law on Criminal Procedure and the Criminal Code will be regulated in the upcoming phase of the reform of the criminal legislation.
In the period July – September 2008 the following is submitted:

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  173 declarations of assets (DeAs)of newly elected and appointed officials
  
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  54 declarations of assets after termination of office
  
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  20 reports on the change of office
  
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  62 reports on the change of property condition
  
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  8 reports on re-election on the same function
  

In the same period 15 misdemeanour procedures for the persons who did not submit DeAs were filed in front of the courts, and 4 decisions were issued by the courts for previously filed requests.

In the period June-September 2008 procedures for 11 persons for examination of assets were initiated in front of the PRO.
In the period June-September 2008 the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption submitted 9 initiatives for prosecution.


HUMAN RIGHTS AND PROTECTION OF MINORITIES

In accordance with the Law on the legal status of a church, religious community and religious groups, the Rulebook on the form and content of the application form for registering in the single court register of churches, religious communities and the manner of its management was adopted and published (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no.68/2008)

The following bylaws of the Law on execution of sanctions were adopted and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no 118/08:

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  Rulebook regulating the performance of a professional and instructive supervision over the execution of alternative measures ;
  
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  Rulebook on weapons and the manner of performing the activities within the security sector in the penitentiary and correctional institutions;
  
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  Rulebook on the conditions, procedure and manner of issuance and revocation of the licence for execution of alternative measures.
  

Amendments to the Law on Family (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, No.84/2008) were adopted with the purpose of advancing the system for protection of victims of domestic violence and the protection of children, victims of human trafficking.

The amendments to the Law on Protection of Children (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, No.99/2008) were adopted aimed at providing increased financial support for newborns and the allowance for bringing up children.
The Parliament ratified the Convention on protection of children and cooperation in respect of inter-country adoption (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 103/08)

The Law on organisations of people with disabilities (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no.89/2008) was adopted. The Law provides for the establishment of a National Organisation for Disabled Persons based upon voluntary and independent association of persons with disability - for the purposes of achieving their joint interests and special needs, as well as association of their legal representatives with the aim to define, advocate and fulfil the special needs of the persons with disability, as well as to represent their interests.

The Government adopted the Decision on the total number of students as well as the additional quotas for students of non majority communities, which are to be enrolled at the Universities in Skopje, Bitola, Shtip and Tetovo for the academic year 2008/2009 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no.74/2008).
The Parliament adopted the Law on the Use of Language Spoken by at least 20% of citizens in the Republic of Macedonia and in the Local Self-Government Units. The use of the Albanian language, as one of the issues of implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement has been long discussed by the major political groups in the country. With the adoption of the law, this important issue has been addressed. The Law codifies all provisions that concern this issue in different areas: use in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia; communication of the citizens with the ministries; court procedures; administrative procedure; execution of sanctions; Ombudsman; election process; referenda; issuing of citizens’ personal documents; personal registries; application of police authorisations; broadcasting field; infrastructure objects; local self-government; finance, economy, education and science, culture, free access to information, publication of laws. The Law grants improved use of the non-majority language spoken by at least 20% of the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia by the MP’s in the Parliament (Committee sessions, materials of the Assembly)
The Law on advancement and protection of the rights of non-majority communities representing less than 20% of the population in the Republic of Macedonia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no.92/2008) was adopted. The Law determined the procedure for monitoring the advancement of the protection of the rights of the non-majority communities representing less than 20% of the population in the Republic of Macedonia. The Law establishes an Agency for realisation of the rights of these communities responsible for harmonisation of the work of the State Administrative bodies regarding the questions which refer to the implementation of the Framework Agreement and refer to the advancement and protection of the rights of the communities representing less than 20% of the population in the Republic of Macedonia.
REGIONAL COOPERATION

On 23 July the Parliament ratified the following Agreements:

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  Agreement between Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro on cooperation in the field of health and medical sciences.
  
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  Agreement between Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Albania on mutual travel of citizens and its Protocol
  
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  Agreement between the Government of Republic of Macedonia and the Government of Republic of Turkey on cooperation in the field of prevention, restriction and mitigation of accidents and disasters effects.
  

Stability Pact was officially closed on 30 June 2008 and the work of the Regional Cooperation Council started with its Secretariat in Sarajevo. Special Envoy of the RCC Secretary General (a Macedonian diplomat) undertook his duty in Brussels mid July.

The Government passed the harmonised text of the Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Interior, General Directorate of state police of Republic of Albania, Ministry of security, Border police of Bosnia and Herzegovina, General Police Directorate of Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Interior of Republic of Macedonia, Police Administration-Border Police of Montenegro and Ministry of Interior of Republic of Serbia on establishment of system for exchange of statistical information on illegal migration and participation in the regional system for early warning. The aim of this system is to ensure exchange of precise statistical data and determination of measurable indicators which will enable monitoring of regional trends in the area of illegal migration, as well as strengthening of the regional cooperation in this field.