On his first official visit to Tirana as Minister of Justice of North Macedonia, Bojan Maricik emphasized that both countries are ready to start negotiations with the European Union, while stressing that the governments are working together to strengthen cooperation and upgrade bilateral agreements regarding the negotiations.
In an interview for Euronews Albania, Minister Maricik said that the government of prime minister Zaev has been working hard to ensure the independence of the judiciary since they took office in 2017 and that thirteen judges have already been dismissed on basis of unprofessional work.
“Thirteen judges have already been dismissed on basis of unprofessional work and harm of the legislation… I think this is a good way to go and this is the way how to strengthen the independence of the judiciary and also the responsibility of the judges. This vetting process will take some time, this process of filtering, will take some time. It might take a year or two and we would like to make it as a process of permanent check-up of the work of the judges and prosecutors,” Maricik said.
The Justice Minister of North Macedonia stated that the long-awaited citizenship law will soon be passed in parliament and said that currently there are 3,000 requests for citizenships.
“At the moment in front of our institutions there are no more than 3,000 requests for citizenships, so I don’t think it’s a great number of citizens and the government has been very open to the idea of the Albanian opposition party in parliament to resolve this issue. So, there was a law on citizenship, amendments to the law which were negotiated by the Minister of the Interior and there was an agreement. The law is now in parliament,” declared the minister.
The population census, which according to Minister Maricik was postponed mostly due to the pandemic, is set to begin on September 5 and finish on September 30.
“We postponed it for September, mostly because of the pandemic. We plan to start on September 5 and to finish it on September 30. I am sure that it will happen. I am sure because there is a strong political will on the side of the government and all the political parties as well and there is a high understanding among the citizens that this is something necessary and that this is something that we need to do. I don’t see a reason to postpone it anymore I think that we can actually have the elections right after the census so the intention of the government is to finish the census and then to start the campaign for the local elections,” the minister argued.
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