EU Diplomat: “We don’t think FYROM is ready to start the accession talks even if the Name Dispute is solved”

in FYROM news / by D-Mak / on June 6, 2010 at 3:02 am /

The rising concern among EU diplomats that FYROM is lagging behind with its reforms, which are key for making progress in its EU accession bid, is becoming obvious each day.

According to Balkan Insight, European officials are starting to complain that FYROM’s political leaders have not done enough to move forward on key reforms, reduce political influence on the judiciary and the civil service and unblock the logjam in dialogue between the main political parties.

“Even if [FYR]Macedonia solves the name dispute with Greece, we don’t think the country is ready to start the accession talks as there have been setbacks in the reform process,” one unnamed EU diplomat told Balkan Insight last week.” We can bluntly say that the country is in a much worse situation today than it was last year.”

Local media on Friday reported that Christian Hedberg, who is responsible for FYROM at the European Commission’s Enlargement Directorate, recently warned the country’s authorities that they had to speed up the reforms immediately and show some results within the next two weeks.

Citing unnamed sources close to the talks Hedberg held with Skopje officials this week, daily Dnevnik says that if there are no results within the next two weeks Brussels will become more vocal about its concerns.