UNOPS has supported the Government of North Macedonia in fulfilling opening benchmarks for Cluster 1 Fundamentals – a cornerstone of its EU accession process – with focus on good governance, judicial independence, public sector accountability, anti-corruption and human rights. The benchmarks require the development of Roadmaps for key reforms that shall be undertaken under the Fundamentals Cluster. The Roadmaps under Fundamentals will lead to effective and accountable public administration, impartial judiciary, upholding human rights, fighting corruption and, ultimately, long-term stability.

Accordingly, the UNOPS expert has supported the development of three Roadmaps for the Rule of Law, Public Administration Reform and Functioning of Democratic Institutions intended to guide the reform process and make it simpler and more strategic.

The UNOPS advisor has initiated the drafting process of the three Roadmaps after extensive consultations with relevant stakeholders, under the guidance of the Secretariat for European Affairs (SEA). The starting point of consultation was the methodological approach to be followed in the preparation of the Roadmaps and, in that respect, a range of meetings with interested parties, including two key ministries responsible for Chapters 23 and 24, were organised under the K4R programme. Thereafter, the K4R expert presented an approach to mapping priority areas to be covered under both chapters, the methodology of defining the Roadmaps’ objectives, the approach to defining deadlines for their achievements, linkages of the Roadmap objectives with lower-level measures and activities and also the scope of objectives of existing reporting and monitoring mechanisms.

Draft versions of the three Roadmaps were finalized and the K4R advisor participated in a round of meetings with line ministries and institutions related to different aspects of the Roadmaps.

The three Roadmaps support the fulfilment of opening benchmarks for the Fundamentals Cluster. In that way, they will guide reforms and make the accession process more linear and strategic, influencing all next steps in the accession talks. In practice, they will provide the means to actively monitor progress in building a fully impartial judiciary, applying the principle of zero tolerance for corruption and establishing a fully transparent and professional public administration in North Macedonia, contributing to a more just, democratic and inclusive society.

“Fulfilling opening benchmarks for Cluster 1 Fundamentals called for the preparation of the draft versions of Roadmaps for the Rule of Law, Public Administration and for the Functioning of Democratic Institutions. UNOPS provided crucial support and offered expertise that led to comprehensive and quality drafts of the three roadmaps, thus enabling North Macedonia to come closer to fulfilling the opening benchmarks for the most important Cluster.” – UNOPS Senior Advisor on EU Negotiations and Stabilization and Association Agreements (SAA)

The assignment supports SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong institutions and SDG 5: Gender Equality as proposed Roadmap measures aim at building efficient, professional, impartial and accountable public administration, which serves the interests of citizens and applies gender mainstreaming principles in shaping and implementing public policies.