Skopje, 27 December 2023 (MIA) - Deputy PM for good governance policies, Slavica Grkovska, said work is underway to make sure that individuals added to the sanctions list of the United States neither hold public office nor emerge as candidates for public office. She noted that the measure is aimed at increasing the trust in institutions.  

"I launched an initiative, which the government accepted, to amend the law on restrictive measures, which will increase the scope of restrictive measures and will also include organized crime, corruption and terrorism. With the coordinating body made up of several institutions, we agreed that hybrid threats be also added as actions against the state. The coordinating body already prepared a draft law. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to review it and then forward it to the government for a review before it can enter parliamentary procedure," Grkovska told reporters during a visit to the Gazi Baba police unit on Wednesday. 

In this way, she underlined, in the name of the strategic partnership with the United States, the process is facilitated for the individuals added to the U.S. sanctions list to be processed in the Macedonian legislation.

"We are also adding the United Kingdom, which until now was within the sanctions imposed by the EU, but since it is no longer a member of the EU, we thought that it should also be added. We also believe that there should be additional consequences, in the sense that those who are added to the list of sanctions, should neither emerge as candidates for public office nor hold public office. It will be a measure aimed at increasing the trust in institutions. We must not allow individuals who have been added to the list of sanctions to behave in our country as if nothing had happened and not only those individuals, but the institutions in charge of fighting corruption and organized crime, to behave as if there has been no indication at all from our international partners that they have serious evidence on the basis of which they made the decision to add those individuals to the sanctions list," Grkovska added. 

She said she hopes that this will make the system more efficient and easier to operate, and will uphold the responsibility that officials should be an example for society.

Photo: MIA