Thursday, 7 November 2019
PRESIDENT XHAFERI MEETS THE FORMER SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY OF SWITZERLAND, DR. CHRISTOPH LANZ
Today, the President of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, Mr. Talat Xhaferi had a meeting with the former Secretary General of the Swiss Federal Assembly and SDC's chief technical consultant for the Parliament Support Programme, Dr. Christoph Lanz. The meeting was attended by the Secretary General of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, Cvetanka Ivanova, the Swiss Ambassador Sybille Suter Tejada, and Robert Scott Heaslet, representative of NDI.
At the beginning of the meeting, President Xhaferi thanked for Switzerland’s continuous support and expressed satisfaction with the current cooperation on the "Parliamentary Support Program" project that will support Assembly's independence efforts by building consensus, structural reforms and institutional development, strengthening the legislative and oversight role, institutional transparency and accountability. President Xhaferi pointed out the projects that are being successfully implemented in the Assembly and underlined that his efforts, together with the Vice Presidents, the Secretary General and the Deputies to the Secretary General, are aimed at creating lasting and positive changes that are important for the citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Secretary General Ivanova reaffirmed the strong support of the legislature’s leadership for the accomplishment of this project, informing that several phases have already begun.
The former Secretary General of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, Dr. Christoph Lanz, congratulated on the launch of the project and the members' goodwill for cooperation aimed at enhancing the transparency, efficiency and democracy of the Assembly as a key institution in each country. He was very pleased to be able to apply his rich practical experience from years of work in this project. He emphasized that he is proud that North Macedonia has been chosen as a country in which Switzerland invests with its projects and believes in a positive outcome. The Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation, Ms Tejada, stated that she would like to have a good synergy in the work on all of the current projects, considering that such a wide cooperation would contribute to a successful Assembly.