ABOUT THE PROGRAM

EUROPE FOR CITIZENS

European integration and the idea that the country will become an EU member remain the driving force of the reform process and the best guarantee for the stability of the Western Balkan countries. However, despite progress in the general political climate, post-authoritarian North Macedonia faces structural shortcomings in key areas related to the rule of law and the economy, and democratic consolidation remains vulnerable internally (possibility of political elites re-capturing the system) and external (soft power of undemocratic actors) negative influences. All of this can reduce citizens’ confidence in the transformative potential of EU accession, reducing support for reform and increasing the attractiveness of alternative development models. EUROTHINK sees in the accession process, i.e. in the so-called European framework as the best tool for protection of the public interest. For EUROTHINK, the European Union is an internal policy. In the past decade, the organization has specialized in monitoring institutions, regulators and policies that are relevant to the protection of the public interest and the accession of North Macedonia to the EU. In the past few years, the organization has also worked on demythologizing the accession process and bringing it closer to the citizens, including using digital communication. In the next four years, EUROTHINK will continue as a dominant approach in its operation to apply the unique combination of watch dog and informing the citizens in order to increase the public pressure for reforms. The work of the regulatory bodies AVMS and AEK, which has points of contact with Chapter 10, the political criteria and the European Digital Agenda, will remain in our interest, and we will examine the possibility to monitor the work of other regulatory and supervisory bodies. EUROTHINK will continue to support European initiatives aimed at making liberal democracy more resilient to contemporary challenges such as disseminating misinformation, including by promoting media literacy and critical thinking skills among young people, as we do within the project “CriThink” as well as through the membership in the Media Literacy Network. In the next four years, EUROTHINK will build its own capacities and in a more structured way, will deal with the chapters that have points of contact with the Rule of Law and economic criteria, which the organization has dealt with so far, such as: Public Procurement (Chapter 5) , Competition Policy (Chapter 8), Judiciary and Fundamental Rights (Chapter 23), Foreign Security and Defense Policy (Chapter 31), and Financial Control (Chapter 32).

Eurothink's Mission

EUROTHINK - Center for European Strategies is a non-governmental, non-partisan, non-profit and secular civic association that supports the integration of North Macedonia in the European Union and Europeanization of society through evidence-based public policy research and policy development, vocational training and advice, regional cooperation and advocacy for change.

Eurothink's Vision

The vision of EUROTHINK is to see the Republic of North Macedonia as a developed, democratic and liberal society based on the principles of justice, equality, freedom and prosperity. We see the EU integration process as the best instrument for achieving our vision.