Macedonian Government responded to the announcement of the European Commission that it will reduce the IPA pre-accession funding. According to the Government, the motives and the goals for this decision are best known to the institution that has made it, and the Government sees an internal and external aspect to it.
"The internal aspect is related to the fact that for more than a year we had preparations for uncertain elections. In this period our institutions were politically handicapped through blocking mechanisms introduced in several key ministries, including the Finance Ministry. The largest opposition party did not use its presence in the Government to improve the faith in the election process, as was provided in the political agreement. On the contrary, they focused on blocking institutions and on doing as much damage to the state as possible", the Government writes in its press release.
The external aspect of the decision, according to the Government, comes from the past experiences the European Commission has had with other preaccession countries. "In these instances, there was mass funding of infrastructure and other projects. The efficiency of these projects often raised alarms. As a consequence, new preaccession instruments have come with multiple restrictions that limit the scope and the areas where EU funds go to, according to current planning, spending and priorities. In accordance with the lessons from past mistakes, the inflow of funds is now much more restrictive", the Government adds in its press release.
EU informed on Saturday that it is reducing its IPA allocation for programs in Macedonia by EUR 27 million. The Macedonian Government sees the move not as sanctions but as a reduction of programmed funds.
The ruling VMRO-DPMNE party also issued a reaction to the move by the European Commission in which they blame the opposition SDSM party and the political crisis sparked by their wiretapping affair.
"The political crisis Zoran Zaev plunged Macedonia into continues to cause damage to Macedonian citizens. That is precisely the goal of those who wish problems on Macedonia and run away from elections. SDSM considers any reduction in European funding, due to the crisis they incited, as their personal success. They are also filled with joy whenever a planned foreign investment doesn't go through. VMRO-DPMNE will continue to work on implementing the projects in our program, as we have done so far, and we will work to remove obstacles that prevent better absorption of EU funds", VMRO-DPMNE writes in its press release.