Skopje, 9 November 2024 (MIA) - We both can and can’t say if the process will happen. If something doesn’t depend on us, we can’t claim it will happen or not. If it does happen, I hope I will be notified and we will immediately begin the procedure, Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi told MIA in an interview in response to a question on whether it could be said that the process of constitutional amendments in the context of launching EU negotiations won’t happen until the end of December.

“This issue has two components. One is procedural, and the other is political will. In regard to the first component, Parliament, alongside its services and Committee is ready to place proposed constitutional amendments on the agenda at any point, to begin and conclude the procedure in line with the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure. The second component which refers to the political will is more of a question for the political stakeholders, the leaders of the political parties, and the two-thirds in Parliament that need to adopt the amendments, and I can’t speak for them,” Gashi said.

One of the biggest remarks that regularly shows up in the European Commission’s progress reports for the country is Parliament's tendency to adopt laws in expedited procedures. Quizzed about the issue, the Speaker said Parliament is constantly pointing out to petitioners that the laws should be adopted as part of a regular procedure, with public debates, but he stressed that Parliament is not in charge of determining the procedure in which a law will be adopted.

“Firstly, I would like to clarify that Parliament cannot determine the draft-law and the procedure it is submitted in by the petitioner. Whether it is the Government, ministers or MPs, the petitioner is the one that describes the procedure and requests an expedited or regular procedure. In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, we are obliged to respect the request of the petitioner. However, we have been trying to indicate to the MPs, the Government and ministers that it isn’t good to have expedited procedures due to many different reasons. One of the reasons is transparency, legal security, and awareness of the citizens. For us as a new composition of Parliament and new leadership it is really important that we have more public debates. They can only happen if Parliament has enough time to assess the proposed legislation, get the public, experts and other interested parties involved to debate every law that is being adopted,” Gashi said.  

Gashi said he has excellent communication with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, and said that according to information from members of his party, the ruling coalition is very stable.

“The relations are fair, there are good relations in the coalition from what I can see, and I think that despite the attempts of other political actors and sometimes the public or media to portray things differently, I think the number of MPs – the majority of 78 MPs – is by itself proof that the majority is stable. I think it is very important to give the citizens a legal and political certainty that we have lacked in the past. The citizens expect us to improve their living conditions, their living standard, the economy, and this can only happen in a stable, secure and political situation. I think the Government and this coalition is showing this through its actions and I think that as time passes the citizens will see that we are committed to the implementation of our program, with the main goal being the improvement of the living standard and the lives of all citizens,” Gashi stressed. 

The main thing the citizens expect, according to the Speaker of Parliament, is accountability.

“We must put an end to the lack of accountability. This must end. In my opinion, this is the biggest reason why the citizens are leaving the country. They see people break the law, become corrupt, and are then able to continue to live in the country as if nothing had happened. This must stop because we have many citizens who are honest citizens, they do honest jobs, they’ve never broken the law, while others get rich on their backs, grow corrupt and are never held accountable. If we don’t bring justice here, believe me, everything else will be irrelevant,” Gashi stressed.

Gashi underscored his attempts to carry out his duty as Speaker of Parliament in accordance with the Constitution, Law and Rules of Procedure.

The current composition of Parliament began its work with a new Rules of Procedure, which has already received certain remarks about its implementation and inconsistencies. Gashi told MIA that there should be no illusions that an ideal document could ever exist. He said two components are necessary for a better and higher quality document.

“The first one is to have consensuality and long-term work. And the second component is to consult not only with the political parties, but also with Parliament’s services and those of us who implement the Rules of Procedure. The first component was present and included in the Jean Monnet process. The process was consensual, together with MEPs, all political parties had discussions for a longer period of time, but the remarks of Parliament’s services and Parliament itself weren’t taken into account. This is why I think we different interpretations arise at the very beginning [of the implementation of the new Rules of Procedure],” Gashi said.

However, the Speaker said certain parts of the Rules of Procedure have been improved and there are better performances than before, noting that “there will always be some small things that will be interpreted differently”.  

Gashi told MIA Parliament’s Committees would begin debating the draft-budget for 2025 on November 14, with a plenary session for its adoption expected to be held during the second week of December.

“The draft-budget for 2025 was delivered on November 5. It will remain in Parliament to be assessed for a couple of days. Committee deliberations will begin on November 14 and last until November 30. In accordance with the new Rules of Procedure, the end of November, i.e., November 30 has been set as the deadline for the end of the discussion in the Committee. Then the draft will be submitted to the Government, we expect the Government to supplement the draft and during the second week of December a plenary session is expected to be called which will last five days, and we hope that within those four-five days the 2025 budget will be adopted,” Gashi told MIA. 

According to the Speaker, Parliament is expected to hold three more sessions by the end of November, including the session for parliamentary questions on November 28, as well as the deliberations of the draft-budget for 2025 by the relevant committee.

Elizabeta Veljanovska Najdeska

Photo: Darko Popov

Video and editing: Aslan Vishko and Srgjan Krstikj

Translation: Angel Dimoski