The Republic of Macedonia, as a candidate country for EU membership, in close cooperation and coordination with the European Commission, in 2015 has launched the new strategic mechanism of the social and economic dialogue on the priorities and reforms in the field of labor market, employment, education and social policy. With this, the Republic of Macedonia, as a third country within the Region, together with the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, has also joined this strategic process, based on the Eu Enlargement Strategy.Within the framework of this joint initiative between the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and the European Commission, the development of an important strategic document was initiated, the so-called Employment and Social Reform Programme 2020 - ESRP. The preparation of the document, was envisaged by the European Commission as an inclusive and participatory strategic process that will follow and accompany the process of European integration of the candidate countries and will represent an important mechanism for mutual dialogue through setting and regular monitoring of priorities in the areas covered, and which will be structured following the model of the European Union Strategy "Europe 2020".
The process of preparation of the ESPR in the Republic of Macedonia has started in 2015. Due to the necessity for multi-sectoral approach and effective coordination/cooperation between the various entities, in February 2015, a special Inter-sectoral Working Group has been established for the preparation of the Employment and Social Reform Programme, composed of representatives from all relevant institutions participating in the creation, implementation and monitoring of policies covered by this Program. The work of the Inter-sectoral Working Group and the overall process of preparation of the ESRP was coordinated by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.
The process of development of the ESPR was open, transparent and participatory, followed by a process of intensive consultations with a large number of relevant stakeholders who, in different ways and at different levels, participate in creation, implementation and/or monitoring of policies in the areas covered by the Programme. During the preparation of the document, consultations were held with the social partners, representatives of the civil society, representatives of relevant international organizations and development partners, professors and experts, which contributed to significantly increase the quality, relevance and representativeness of the document itself.
Several cycles of consultations were realized, through organizing meeting with the representative social partners (trade unions and employers' organizations), publishing the ESRP draft-text on the web site of the MoLSP and announcing a public call for consultation to all relevant stakeholders, and finalizing the process, a wider consultation event was organized in February 2017 – the "ESRP - Consultations and Way Forward" Conference, that provided an additional opportunity to obtain relevant opinions, comments, suggestions. The results and inputs received from the process of consultations were afterwards reviewed and considered for the finalization of the document.
The development of the ESRP was also characterized with continuous consultations and cooperation with the representatives of the European Commission (DG EMPL) and the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Macedonia.
The "Employment and Social Reform Programme 2020" was adopted by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia in August 2017.
Download ESRP 2020 (EN): ESRP2020_Macedonia.pdf
Monitoring the Implementation of ESRP 2020
