{"id":8561,"date":"2019-07-10T12:09:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T12:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idscs.org.mk\/en\/?p=8561"},"modified":"2022-07-26T10:09:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T10:09:12","slug":"switzerland-and-north-macedonia-assembly-announce-10-year-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idscs.org.mk\/en\/2019\/07\/10\/switzerland-and-north-macedonia-assembly-announce-10-year-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Switzerland and North Macedonia Assembly announce 10 year partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Swiss Parliament Support Programme<\/strong> builds on the successful cooperation Switzerland has with the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia to strengthen the institution\u2019s research and information capacities.<\/p>\n

This new 10 year project will support the Assembly\u2019s independence efforts by providing support to institutional development, policy dialogue, oversight and legislative functions, transparency, and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project\u2019s indicative overall budget is 11 million Swiss Francs focusing on strengthening the Assembly\u2019s professional staff support, cross-party dialogue, executive oversight, inclusive policy-making, and parliamentary openness\u201d, announced Swiss Ambassador Sybille Suter Tejada.<\/strong> \u201cTo foster sustainability, Switzerland will contribute a portion of these funds to the North Macedonia state budget to support the realization of the Assembly\u2019s strategic plans for a functional parliamentary democracy, open parliament and professional and efficient parliamentary staff. To support greater transparency, funds will be allocated for the Assembly to upgrade and modernize its IT infrastructure and transparency mechanisms, such as parliamentary broadcasting and the website.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019The Assembly aims to be an open, accountable, and modern Parliament which has independence from the executive,\u201c said Assembly President Talat Xhaferi<\/strong>, \u201cwe value our long-term cooperation with the Swiss and NDI and welcome the start of the Parliament Support Programme to help us achieve our strategic goals of professionalism, impartiality, transparency, independence, responsibility, and efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Parliament Support Programme will be implemented by the National Democratic Institute Center for Change Management, and Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis Skopje with institutional partnerships from the Swiss Federal Assembly, Estonian Riigikogu, European Parliament, German Bundestag and Latvia-based CSO ManaBalss.lv.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s aim is to assist the Assembly in gaining institutional credibility and public trust by safeguarding citizen interests and needs by more inclusive consensus-oriented debate and decision-making.<\/p>\n