Team

Dr. Simonida Kacarska is a Director of  the European Policy Institute in Skopje, Macedonia. She holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) and a MA in European Politics from the Sussex European Institute (United Kingdom).

Simonida is one EPI’s founders and works in the Institute since 2011. In the period between 2005 and 2011, Simonida has worked in the Secretariat for European Affairs in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, in the Unit for Justice, Freedom and Security, Sector for Integration.

She was a research fellow at the Central European University, University of Oxford, the College of Europe and the European Research Council project The Europeanisation of Citizenship in the Successor States of the Former Yugoslavia based at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. Simonida provided expert and consultancy services to international organisations (CoE and OSCE). She has both practitioner and research experience related to the political transformation and European integration of the Balkans with a focus on national minority policies.

She is a director of EPI since February 2017.

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Ardita Abazi Imeri  is one of the EPIs  founders and works in the institute since 2011. She holds a  PhD from the University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” – Institute for sociological, political and juridical research in the area of consumer protection and alignment with acquis communaitaire and holds a degree  Master of  Law in International, Comparative and European law from Maastricht University  (Maastricht, The Netherlands).

At the Institute, Ardita is the programme coordinator, responsible for overall strategic planning and monitoring and evaluation of EPIs work. Other areas of focus in her work are rule of law, accession monitoring, conditionality policy, consumer protection and promotion of social cohesion policies.  Among successful projects under her leadership are projects related to the public administration reform (WeBER) as a regional grant manager and reforms in the area justice sector (Мрежа 23+, JuDGMeNT).

Between 2008 and 2010 she worked in the Secretariat for European Affairs of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, specifically on issues related to internal market and sectorial policies.

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Julijana Karai holds a MA in Policy and Governance of European Integration from the University of Bologna and she is EPI’s Assembly Member. She has been working in the Secretariat for European Affairs in the field of Political Criteria, specifically on issues related to democracy and rule of law, public administration reform, decentralisation and fight against corruption; and in the Ministry of Information Society and Administration.

Julijana was a TEMPUS trainer for Continuing Education in European Affairs with the certificate from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium; researcher in the Regional IPA Project “Strengthening National Integrity Systems in the Western Balkans and Turkey and tracking developments of anti-corruption efforts”; project manager of the IPA project “Civic Participation for Local Democracy”; and a consultant in the UNDP Project “Developing innovative solutions for better access to local services”.

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Stefan Ristovski is researcher at the European Policy Institute – Skopje working on monitoring the accession process of North Macedonia to the European Union and EU sectorial policies. His work at EPI covers topics on economic reforms, regional cooperation and integration, social security and inclusion. He has experience in the private sector working in the event industry on compliance in life sciences and cross-border healthcare. Stefan studied European economic studies at the College of Europe and International trade at the Faculty of Economics - Skopje.

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Vaska Ristovska joined EPI in October 2014 as an Administrative Officer. Since then she has been responsible for financial and administrative management of several projects, as well as development of the program activities of the Institute. Apart from daily activities, that ensure smooth implementation of projects, she also ensures smooth management and communication with the project team and partners. Vaska has graduated at the Institute for Ethnology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University "Ss. Cyril and Methodius”.

Dejan Ristovski is a Financial Officer in EPI. He graduated economy at the University for Tourism and Management in Skopje.

He is employed in EPI since 2013. He has worked on projects financed by the European Union and other partners. Dejan was a financial and administrative officer in the project Network 23, which envisaged a re-granting scheme. From that position, he was responsible for drafting re-granting scheme documents, monitoring the payments and the implementation of the re-granted projects.

In EPI, he is responsible for the financial operations of the organizations, that is, payments, financial reporting, as well as settling documentation for accounting.

Naum Lokoski is a Communication Officer in EPI. He holds a BA in Political Science from the Faculty of Law “Iustinianus Primus” of the University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” and is currently enrolled in a master studies in Applied Politics at the same faculty.

As a Communication Officer, he is responsible for managing EPI’s website and social media accounts. He is tasked with drafting announcements, promoting EPI’s publications and research findings, managing e-mail communication, press clipping, and daily monitoring of both national and international media outlets. He helps in the development of both project-related and organizational communication strategy and monitors their implementation. Naum also contributes to producing promotional materials, such as briefs, one-pagers, summaries, infographics and videos.

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