Page 55 - bne magazine November 2021_20211104 uzbekistan risding

bne November 2021 Southeast Europe I 55
The consortium was responsible for
the construction of the Albania-Kosovo motorway project, selected in a fast- track procurement process back in 2006. The costs of the project escalated several times during the construction and in total the 137-km motorway linking Tirana and Pristina cost about €2bn from the state budgets of the
two countries. The method of awarding the contract for the motorway section from Tirana to the Kosovan border
was criticised at home and also by
the World Bank, which financed
the project.
A political hot topic
The corruption issue in North Macedonia, as well as across the Western Balkans, has consistently been a hot topic and a subject of cross-party accusations.
During a debate with the leader of VMRO-DPMNE on Kanal 5 ahead
of the local elections, Zaev said that his government has a clear anti- corruption policy, in contrast to the opposition party.
“Now anyone in our country can be held criminally liable if involved in illicit activities, regardless of their position,” Zaev said.
He also said that the government asked for assistance from Transparency International and the anti-corruption body on how to deal with corruption.
During the debate, opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski recalled that the country fell drastically in the TI ranking from 62nd in 2012 to 111th in 2020.
“North Macedonia ranked 67th in 2013, 64th in 2014, 93rd in 2018, 106th in 2019 and 111th in 2021. These are the numbers about corruption. Everything else is philosophy,” Mickoski said.
“We are working to improve the rating,” Zaev replied.
Mickoski also linked the government’s record on fighting corruption to the stalled EU accession process. Bulgaria vetoed the start of North Macedonia’s
EU negotiations at the end of 2020 over language and historical issues, which also blocked Albania on its EU path, as the two countries' progress is linked. But for Mickoski, not only Bulgaria, but also the country’s corruption is an obstacle to its EU accession progress.
Criticism was also levelled at the government by former president of North Macedonia and ex-SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski. In his first public appearance in a long time, Crvenkovski strongly criticised the situation in the country, pointing out to three main factors: explicit corruption, deep divisions in society and high indebtedness.
"North Macedonia is a corrupt country, and in a corrupt country there is no equality before the law, no fair market economy, no quality education and health care system, nor the trust in the institutions and no dominant system
of social values,” Crvenkovski said in his speech at the Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts (MANU) in late September.
Crvenkovski also pointed out that North Macedonia is an internally
privatisations took place following Macedonia's independence from former Yugoslavia back in 1991.
International support
Despite criticism at home, the EU commended North Macedonia’s efforts to fight corruption and the US increased the financial support in this regard.
On September 28, the government in Skopje announced that USAID increased its planned grant for North Macedonia from over $8.2mn to $56.6mn for projects aimed mainly to reduce corruption in the next four to five years.
This came after in July, the US Department of State said in its 2021 Investment Climate Statement that corruption is a consistent issue in North Macedonia. It underlined that the government generally enforces laws, but there are numerous reports that some officials remain engaged in corrupt activities.
Also on September 26, the European Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen, during her visit to Skopje, praised North Macedonia for progress made in the EU-related reforms, in
“North Macedonia is a corrupt country, and in
a corrupt country there is no equality before the law, no fair market economy, no quality education and health care system"
deeply conflicted and divided country, in which the political parties do not see each other as competitors, but as enemies unable to reach consensus
on any important issue.
“And third, North Macedonia is a country that lives on loans, and who lives on loans, dies in instalments. The fact is that a large part of this borrowed money was spent not for infrastructure projects, but for totally unproductive things," Crvenkovski said.
His speech was criticised because he was prime minister when illegal
particular on the rule of law, the fight against corruption and organised crime.
Von der Leyen also said that North Macedonia met all conditions to launch the EU talks and that the EU's common goal is that to happen, together with Albania, by the end of the year.
“I fully support, from the bottom of my heart, the formal opening of the accession negotiations...and I want these accession negotiations opened with North Macedonia and Albania as soon as possible” von der Leyen said at a news conference in Skopje.
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