Cooperation Agreement

Negotiation directives were adopted by the Council on 22 December 1995 and in March 1996, the European Union officially opened negotiations with FYROM on a cooperation and trade agreement. Negotiations were concluded on 21 June 1996 and the Agreement was signed on 29 April 1997. It is a classical cooperation agreement, taking into account Council conclusions of 26 and 27 February 1996 on regional cooperation in former Yugoslavia; a financial protocol which foresees ECU 150m of European Investment Bank loans and ECU 20m in budget funds intended as an interest-rate subsidy to the financing of infrastructure; a separate agreement in the field of transport; and a protocol on additional trade agreements for certain iron and steel products.

The Cooperation Agreement includes an evolutionary clause providing for the possibility of strengthening the contractual relations in due course, when conditions are met.

It comprises a preferential trade regime, which is based on the autonomous import regime applied to countries which have emerged from the former Yugoslavia, and Protocols on additional trade arrangements for certain iron and steel products and on the rules of origin.

The Protocol on financial cooperation is also an integral part of the Cooperation Agreement. It provides for the financing of projects of common interest to the European Community and FYROM, particularly those relating to infrastructure and, as a matter of first priority, transport infrastructure.

The Agreement in the Field of Transport is similar to the Agreement signed in 1993 with Slovenia providing for free transit from the entry into force of the Agreement. The Agreement sets out the main road and rail routes and projects of particular interest to the Community and FYROM, to which the Community can contribute financially under the protocol on financial cooperation annexed to the Cooperation Agreement.

The Cooperation Agreement entered into force on 1 January 1998. At the first, constituent meeting of the Cooperation Council, the FYROM government stressed that it wished to conclude an Association Agreement with the European Union by the end of 1999.

The European Union emphasized the importance of regional cooperation and good-neighbourly relations between FYROM and the other countries of the region, this being a fundamental aspect of which the EU would take account when assessing whether an extension of bilateral relations was desirable and possible (in accordance with the principle of conditionality built into the regional approach chosen by the EU for developing its relations with the five countries of South-East Europe, including FYROM, (cf. Agence Europe, 25.3.1998).