25 September 2023 

The 19th Subcommittee meeting on Education, Research and Innovation, Information Society, and Social Policy under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the EU and North Macedonia was held on 21 September 2023. Representatives from the European Commission (Commission) discussed with relevant authorities from North Macedonia the most recent developments in these areas. The meeting was co-chaired for the EU by Deputy Head of Unit for Albania and North Macedonia at the Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission Mr. Alberto Cammarata and for North Macedonia by Mr. Aleksandar Bajdevski, Deputy Minister for Information Society and Administration. 

The Commission acknowledged the efforts done by the authorities of North Macedonia to overcome the effects of the energy crisis, in particular by continuing reducing unemployment and increasing the social assistance benefits. It underlined the need of further enhancing the funding to employment policies and services, the social protection monitoring system, education reforms, research and innovation initiatives and the important role of digital technologies in boosting the economic growth.

The Commission congratulated the authorities and the city of Skopje for its nomination as the European Capital of Culture for 2028 and recognised the efforts made by North Macedonia during the last year in the field of education, underlining the need to strengthen the implementation of the educational reform, and the adoption of pending key legislative acts. The Commission stressed the need to increase the financial allocation for the education system and welcomed the good implementation of Erasmus+ and Creative Europe Programme, encouraging North Macedonia to make even better use of Erasmus+ opportunities. 

The Commission welcomed the country’s association to the Digital Europe Programme and encouraged the authorities of North Macedonia to adopt the delayed National ICT Strategy. The Commission also underlined that North Macedonia needs to align its legislation to the EU Electronic Communications Code, EU Broadband Cost Reduction Directive and Network and Information Security (NIS2) Directive. The European Commission encouraged North Macedonia to follow the roll out of the European Digital Identity Wallet closely, and take part in the Large Scale Pilots (LSPs) to foster interoperability for their eID solutions.

The Commission welcomed the efforts made in the area of employment and labour market policies in the last year and the progress achieved in implementing the Youth Guarantee. It acknowledged that the negative impact of the energy crisis was offset by the continuous application of social protection measures, ensuring that the poverty rate did not increase. The Commission stressed the need to accelerate pending legislative reforms.

The Commission welcomed the efforts made by North Macedonia on strengthening the research and innovation capacity of the public and private sector, the increased science budget and the country’s continuous improvement in the Horizon Europe participation. It strongly encouraged the authorities of North Macedonia to finalise the adoption of the Smart Specialisation Strategy by the end of 2023.

Delegation of the European Union in North Macedonia  

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