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Skopje – The country is at a crossroads between the old system and a new European future. The Growth Plan and the Reform Agenda are not just conditions for integration. They are instruments for healing our society. Integrations and growth are our compass, but reforms must be our decisions, our policies, our national maturation. Corruption is a systemic problem, not an individual deviation, emphasized Prime Minister Christian Mitskoski at the Round Table on the challenges and benefits of the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.
Mitskoski stated that corruption in our country is not just an occurrence, but part of the way certain parts of society function and a system that protects itself.
– If we want to join the European Union, if we want growth, we must dismantle that system. We have inherited situations where the citizen feels degraded, helpless, forced to “pay to get” – whether it is for medical assistance, legal protection, or some administrative service. Such a state cannot progress, said the Prime Minister.
According to him, it is even more concerning that the institutions that should fight against corruption – the prosecution and the judiciary – are often silent, ineffective, or under political influence.
Mitskoski said that reforms in the judiciary sector are the most urgent and that without them, all other reforms are worthless.
At the Round Table held at the Government, spoke the Minister for European Affairs Orhan Murtezani, the Ambassador of Sweden to North Macedonia Ami Larson Jain, and Vladimir Drobnjak, former chief negotiator for Croatia’s accession negotiations with the European Union. (April 23, 2025)