Skopje, 17 February 2025 (MIA) – Minister of Local Self-Government Zlatko Perinski said he expects the entire procedure on amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government to be completed by summer, and new candidates for mayors be elected in November 2025 under the new legal solution, which will provide for a possibility to recall a mayor through a referendum, introduce communal supervision and greater participation of the civil sector in decision-making at the local level.

He added that drafting of the amendments is to be completed around March 30, to be followed by a vote at the government and then enter in parliamentary procedure. Perinski pointed out that the amendments cannot be retroactive, which means that none of the incumbent mayors can be recalled. With the amendments, he noted, the intention is to improve the situation at the local level and enable higher quality and a more sustainable legal solution for all stakeholders who are affected. 

"The new law that we will adopt will include the new mayors who will receive their mandates after November. I am convinced that we are ready to move on to the next phase, which is the drafting of amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government and submit them to the Parliament for additional consultations with all parliamentary political parties in order to get to the phase of adopting the draft amendments. I am confident that through such open, transparent and inclusive manner we will reach a much better solution than the one we have at the moment," Perinski said ahead of the fourth consultative event on amendments to Law on Local Self-Government, held in Skopje on Monday. Previous consultative meetings were held in Bitola, Shtip and Gostivar. 

He noted that discussions at Monday's meeting will include the mayors of the Skopje Planning Region and the North-East Planning Region, as well as all non-governmental organizations that believe they should attend the meeting.

"This is a systemic solution which required a broad public debate in order to hear the opinions of all stakeholders, and that's what we did. Although there were opinions that four public debates were too many, we insisted on having at least four so that we could hear out and include all sides," Perinski pointed out.

Aleksandar Spasenoski, a professor at the Faculty of Law in Skopje who is an expert in this field, noted that several phases have been implemented in the past few months in order to adopt the best and most appropriate legal solution in amending the Law on Local Self-Government.

"The Law on Local Self-Government is an important systemic law that has stood the test of time, but as a result of its long-term application, there is a need for certain amendments. The main amendments are aimed at correcting certain provisions that are part of the current legal solution, which have shown certain anomalies and weaknesses over time. Our goal is to detect them in cooperation with the Minister, the Ministry, the mayors and other important stakeholders in this area and to foresee certain norms that are not part of the current legal solution, but have been shown as necessary. Such a norm, among other things, is the idea of ​​recalling a mayor in accordance with the highest European standards," said Spasenoski. 

We are trying, he added, to also include the idea of ​municipal police or other smaller provisions in consultation with the mayors in order to come up with a legal solution that will be accepted by the majority of political parties.

"The Law on Local Self-Government stems from the Framework Agreement and therefore the goal of the UNDP, the Ministry and us as experts is to shape a legal solution that will be accepted by the majority of parties in the Parliament. When it comes to municipal police, in this legal solution we are only creating a legal possibility to introduce it, which will be regulated by another legal solution. Now we are creating a basis for this matter to be legally regulated in the future," Spasenoski said. 

Photo: MIA