Speaker Xhaferi dismisses VMRO-DPMNE's referendum initiative
Skopje, 13 September 2022 (MIA) - The citizens' initiative is not a matter for which a referendum could be organized nationwide. The international treaties ratified in accordance with the Constitution are part of the national legal order and cannot be changed by a law, Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi says responding to VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, who was authorized to put forward the referendum initiative.
"According to Article 60 of the Rules of Procedures of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, I notify you that the citizens' initiative for calling a mandatory nationwide referendum on terminating the validity of the ratification law of the Agreement for Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation between the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Bulgaria (published in Official Gazette, number 12/2018 on January 1, 2018) is not in line with Article 118 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia and with Article 8 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia. Namely, Article 118 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia establishes that international agreements ratified in accordance with the Constitution are part of the national legal order and cannot be changed under a law. Article 8 establishes that the founding value of the constitutional order of the Republic of North Macedonia is also the respect of generally accepted norms of international law," Xhaferi says in his response to Mickoski.
On September 9, VMRO-DPMNE submitted the initiative to Parliament on scheduling a referendum to annul the Treaty with Bulgaria. Filing the initiative, VMRO-DPMNE parliamentary coordinator Nikola Micevski said the party had collected the signatures needed to submit the initiative.
On September 5, the VMRO-DPMNE Executive Committee adopted the referendum question: "Are you in favor of terminating the validity of the ratification law on the Agreement for Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation between Macedonia and Bulgaria, published in the Official Gazette on Jan. 18, 2017?".
