We, the participants in the initiative for urgent democratic reforms, call upon the parties participating in the parliamentary elections to bring back the democratic standards and values in the Republic of Macedonia.

We demand from the political parties to devote themselves unconditionally to the following priorities:

Due to the worsened fiscal discipline we demand the return of fiscal transparency and accountability for the purpose of more efficient, economic and effective use of public resources.

In order to ensure the independent functioning of the judiciary and to restore the trust of citizens, we demand the provision of all legal and institutional conditions that would enable the impaired functioning of the Special Public Prosecution (SPP) and the continuation of its mandate. In that direction, we demand the establishment of a special judicial department and separate department within the Administration for Security and Counterintelligence which would act upon the requests of the SPP.

Due to the established political/party influence on the work of the competent authorities for fight against corruption, it is essential that the Members of Parliament demand the resignations of the members of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, the Public Prosecution of the Republic of Macedonia, the Judicial Council and the Council of the Public Prosecution, as a moral responsibility for the mass corruption in their sectors. Trust needs to be restored, but also transparency in the election of the members of these bodies needs to be secured.

Due to permanent political and economic pressures, media and journalism no longer serve the public interest and the citizens. We demand from the Government to stop using the media as a tool for political promotion and to stop all threats and pressures on journalists. We demand from all political parties to commit to systemic reforms in the area of media.

To prevent political interference in employment and promotion of the employees in the public administration in order to prevent political clientelism and to separate the state from the party.

The processes of creation and implementation of future educational reforms must be transparent and inclusive. New amendments should be exempt from penalty provisions and should focus on quality improvement, on reforms of core education and further training of teachers, on stopping the further expansion of higher education, as well as on democratization and improvement of the models of high school and students’ organizations.

Supported by:
Institute for democracy “Societas Civilis” Skopje

European Policy Institute

Institute of communication studies

Macedonian Center for European Training

Foundation Open Society – Macedonia

Helsinki Committee of the Republic of Macedonia

Center for Economic Analyses

The complete document Blueprint for Urgent Democratic Reforms is available on the following link