#eu-accession

#eu-accession

Although the elections are meant to focus on municipal issues, the campaign has been dominated by national questions: identity, minority rights, and the stalled EU accession process. In the capital, Skopje, pressing local challenges remain unresolved. The city of about 520,000 people still lacks a wastewater treatment plant and has no public transport alternatives to buses. The next mayor will also need to adopt a long-delayed "General Urban Plan for 20222032" and oversee preparations for "Skopje European Capital of Culture 2028."

Protesters gathered on September 9 in the Georgian capital a day after supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party attacked protesters participating in ongoing demonstrations over a government decision to halt European Union membership talks. Georgian Dream supporters pelted the demonstrators with bottles and rocks on September 8 in front of the campaign headquarters of Mayor Kakha Kaladze, who is running for reelection in local elections on October 4.

Iliescu was one of the most controversial politicians in the period of democracy that followed the December 1989 overthrow of long-standing dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He had been a government minister before being sidelined by Ceausescu in the early 1970s.

"What Ukraine has to do is take 50% of the revenues that it collects from the licensing of new natural resource projects in the country and put them in the fund."