Euro – Atlantic Council of Macedonia as Civil Society Organization in its working field covers specific area for Republic of Macedonia such as the euro – atlantic integrations and promotion of the euro – atlantic idea and values in our society.



As a member of the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) we represent a network of more than 40 national associations and in that direction we accomplish wide international cooperation within ATA and also with the NATO and EU structures.

With the begging of the New Year, EACM organized the following event: “Open day of the Euro – Atlantic Council of Macedonia”, activity that represented resume of few activities.

The goal of this project “Open day of the Euro – Atlantic Council of Macedonia” was to present the work that has been done in the past period, to announce new ideas and activities and show readiness to accept every interested side in spreading the euro – atlantic idea and to contribute to the euro – atlantic integration of the Republic of Macedonia. Also it strongly promoted to the broad public all that was achieved on the Republic of Macedonia integration path towards NATO.

The main accent on this event was put on the promotion of the publication “Regional Post ISAF engagement – Lessons learned and a legacy for A – 5 countries future expeditionary missions”.

Speakers on the Open day of the Euro – Atlantic Council of Macedonia were:
•    Ismet Ramadani, VP of the Euro – Atlantic Council of Macedonia
•    Fatmir Besimi, Deputy Prime minister  for euro – atlantic integration of Republic of Macedonia
•    Talat Xhaferi, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Macedonia
•    Aleksandar Aleksandrov, Chief of the NATO Liaison in Republic of Macedonia
•    Metodi Hadji Janev, Vice Dean of the military academy “General Mihajlo Apostolski”

The event was opened by Mr. Ismet Ramadani, VP of the Euro – Atlantic Council of Macedonia. In his address he emphasized the goals of the event and announced the promotion of the publication “Regional Post ISAF engagement – Lessons learned and a legacy for A – 5 countries future expeditionary missions”. He stated that this publication is result from one regional research which included six countries and a regional conference on which there were high level representatives from NATO, relevant state institutions from Republic of Macedonia, representatives from the embassies and experts from the region.



Mr. Ramadani also promoted the new working groups in YATA Macedonia. In the end, Mr. Ramadani announced the Annual Assembly of the Euro – Atlantic Council of Macedonia which will take place in 2014.

Next speaker on the event was the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Fatmir Besimi. He stated that euro – atlantic integration of Republic of Macedonia is real and strategic priority. After that, Mr. Besimi concentrated on the euro integration of Republic of Macedonia.
He emphasized the benefits which will have Republic of Macedonia of the euro integration:
•    Strengthening of the internal and inter ethnic stability
•    Promotion of the democratic values and human rights
•    Stabile ambient for investment
•    Reforms of the law and economic development

After Mr. Besimi, next speaker was the Minister of Defence, Mr. Talat Xhaferi. The Minister sent warmest congratulations to the young researchers which gave enormous effort with the goal to contribute to better understanding of the regional engagement of the A5 in the Post ISAF mission in Afghanistan “Resolute Support”.

He emphasized that Republic of Macedonia is fully prepared to continue the participation in the international operations after 2014. Furthermore he stated that Republic of Macedonia intensively works to implement the regional projects for training and military capabilities.
Also, Republic of Macedonia in 2014 for the second time will be part of the EU Battle group EU 2014-2 led by Kingdom of Belgium together with Germany, Luxembourg, Kingdom of Netherlands and Kingdom of Spain.



In the end Mr. Xhaferi noted that the Government has adopted the Long term plan for development of the defence of the Republic of Macedonia 2014 – 2023 in which there is also the Plan for modernization and equipping of the ARM. According to the Long term plan and the approved financial construction, the budget of the defence is planned to continually grow from present 1,17% GDP to 1,60% GDP in 2023. With the Long term plan is planned in the next ten years to invest at least 215 million euros in the equipment and modernization of the Army.

Next speaker on the event was Colonel Aleksandar Aleksandrov, chief of the NATO Liaison Office in Skopje. He rated the research from the young researches is important study for the Alliance and the lessons learned should be taken in consideration for the future NATO missions. Once again he highly rated and thanked for the enormous contribution which Republic of Macedonia gives in the regional and world peace and stability through its participation in the international peace missions.   

Last speaker was Lt. Colonel Metodi Hadji Janev, PhD. Hadji Janev as director of the project emphasized that with the project once again we showed euro – atlantic initiative.  Furthermore he emphasized that in Afghanistan in the moment we miss the civil component and the research have shown that we have small awareness for this type of engagement.

After that he stated that it is from immense importance the involvement of the private companies and academic fellows.
In the end, Lt. Col. Hadji Janev said that the academic society doesn’t have specified area that will stimulate this kind of researches for using the regional capacities.

The event was held in the Army Hall, 24.02.2014 (Monday).