President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova met today with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, who is on an official visit to the country.
She highlighted the role of the Council of Europe, as the oldest European institution, which has been promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law as fundamental values for more than seven decades.
According to the President, the New Democratic Pact for Europe represents an important step towards restoring trust in institutions and strengthening democratic resilience, in conditions of profound political, security and technological changes.
Siljanovska-Davkova pointed out that the development of digital technologies and artificial intelligence opens up new challenges related to the protection of human rights, privacy and democratic values. For these reasons, she welcomed the signing of the Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, which made the country one of the first signatory countries.
For her, the decision to close the post-monitoring dialogue with the country is a significant institutional recognition of the progress in reforms related to the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption.
The Macedonian President, who has three decades of experience in the bodies of the Council of Europe, recalled that the country is actively implementing European reforms and remains among the candidates most aligned with the acquis communautaire and warned that the bilateralization of the accession process undermines the concept of enlargement based on the Copenhagen criteria.
She also pointed to the non-implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by individual member states, emphasizing that issues related to the right to association, identity and self-determination are not bilateral, but European issues that relate to fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.
Secretary General Berset pointed out that frustrations among candidate countries due to the stagnation in the enlargement process can create negative political tendencies and emphasized that a new dynamic is necessary, especially in the Western Balkans region.
Referring to the European Court of Human Rights, Berset said that the Council of Europe is working on mechanisms for more efficient and faster implementation of court judgments in order to ensure their substantive, rather than symbolic, implementation.
Both expressed readiness to intensify cooperation, in anticipation of the Macedonian chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the period 2027–2028.
