Skopje, 12 September 2024 (MIA) - Commenting on the amount of the legal fees for the Hungary loan, which has been in parliamentary procedure since Wednesday, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the loan-related expenses are 12 to 20 times lower than the loans taken by the previous SDSM and DUI government.

In response to reporters' questions on Thursday, Mickoski pointed to a possibility of obstruction to the work of the Parliament's Finances and Budget Committee, but, he noted, the Government has the task of preserving the dignity of the institution and providing funds for development for companies and municipalities.

"The price that we are paying for this half a billion is somewhere around 0.014 percent. And that's for legal services, etc., a process that is standard for this type of loan. I made an analysis of the loan-related expenses paid by the SDSM and DUI government during the period when it borrowed through issuing government bonds on the international market. And the expenses they paid range from 12 to 20 times more than what we pay now as legal services for these EUR 500 million. I will repeat, from 12 to 20 times more," Mickoski told reporters at Thursday's event on the opening of a new sports and recreation centre in Ljubotenski Pat at the Municipality of Butel. 

He said he has received information that the chair of the Finances and Budget Committee, Sanja Lukarevska, will not put the item on the agenda today, and that this is a position taken by SDSM. 

"The Rules of Procedure are clear, stating a period when this item should be put on the agenda, what needs to be done if it is not put on the agenda, etc., and it will be done. The opposition, I guess Levica, DUI and SDSM, will try to obstruct the work of the Committee in an undemocratic way, but our task is to preserve the dignity of the institution and provide funds for development for companies and municipalities," said Mickoski. 

According to him, the opposition's real intention is fear because, he added, if these funds are invested in the way we plan to invest them, we will get a political benefit from all of this and in that way the state will finally start to move forward, after a long time of stagnation and regression, through the implementation of projects in the municipalities and support of the business.

The draft law over the loan from the Hungarian Export-Import Bank is on the agenda of the 14th session of the Parliament.

Photo: Government