Skopje, 10 October 2024 (MIA) -- In response to a reporter asking him to comment on the Constitutional Court's decision to scrap the 'Balancer' ethnic diversity program of affirmative action in hiring governmental workers, Minister of Public Administration Goran Minchev said it was not up to the Ministry of Public Administration to discuss the decision but to abide by it.

Minchev also stressed that the government coalition had the political capacity to find an appropriate solution in line with the Constitution.

"The Ministry of Public Administration is not commenting on the Constitutional Court's decision just as it did not comment on the Constitutional Court's temporary order to freeze some clauses in two laws related to the public sector and civil servants," he said.

"The ministry does not analyze the content of decisions but implements them," he told a news conference Thursday.

He added that the Ministry of Public Administration would take steps to implement the Constitutional Court's decision as soon as it was published in the Official Gazette.

According to Minchev, the equal representation of ethnic communities was an important constitutional category and any new legislation should be carefully drafted.

"A good option is to include the expert and academic community in order to find an appropriate long-term solution," he said.

Asked to comment on Worth It coalition's Halil Snopce's statement that they had already drafted an Ethnic Diversity Bill they would submit to Parliament, the public administration minister said he was not familiar with the draft law.

"I would not like to comment on contents I have not seen," Minchev said.

"In principle I am against rushed decisions. The changes regarding the equal representation of ethnic communities are related to two laws under the Ministry od Public Administration's jurisdiction.

"The idea of giving a statement of one's feelings of ethnic or national belonging before a notary, in my opinion, is humiliating.

"Let the tensions cool and, with cool heads, let's open a wide public debate, inviting experts in public administration reform and the academic community, too, and find a long-term, meaningful, appropriate solution."

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday decided to scrap the 'Balancer,' which according to former members of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, who had filed the motion questioning the constitutionality of the diversity program, had given rise to "fraud, influence peddling, corruption and clientelism."

Constitutional Court president Darko Kostadinovski said the majority of justices voted to scrap the affirmative action program but the decision would not apply retroactively.

Commenting on allegations that the court had abolished rights of the communities, Kostadinovski said they were "manipulation." mr/