Skopje, 19 July 2023 (MIA) - Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi has received the draft constitutional amendments forwarded by the Government, and submitted them to the MPs, thus the deadlines for further processing begin running as set forth in the Constitution and the Parliament's Rules of Procedure. 

The Parliament notes that in accordance with the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure, Speaker Talat Xhaferi has already scheduled the plenary session for August 18 at 11 am. Before the plenary session, the Constitutional Committee, which is chaired by Xhaferi, will debate the draft amendments. The Constitutional Committee's session is scheduled for July 25 at 10 am. In line with the law, the Committee is to debate the draft for ten days and complete its work eight days before the vote. Given that August 2 is a national holiday, and a Q&A session had already been scheduled for July 27, the Constitutional Committee's work is expected to be completed between August 7-9. The need for constitutional amendments is then to be debated at a plenary session for up to ten days. 

If the need for constitutional amendments is passed with a two-thirds majority, the Parliament adopts a conclusion and forwards the material to the Government. With the Conclusion, The Parliament sets a deadline in which the petitioner (the Government) prepares the text of the draft amendments to the Constitution, which it submits to the Parliament Speaker, after which the Parliament will discuss them in a same procedure in terms of deadlines.

The Parliament notes that Constitutional Committee's debate and the plenary session will be broadcasted on the Parliament's TV channel and citizens will be able to follow the Parliament's work.