site.bta Minister Marichikj: Constitutional Changes Will Enter North Macedonia's Parliament No Later Than End-July

The amendments to the constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia will be submitted to the country's parliament by the end of July so that the procedure can be completed by the November deadline, and further reasoning is being done in the government departments on the need for them, related to the negotiation process with the EU, North Macedonia's Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj said in response to a journalist's question.

He said North Macedonia's ruling parliamentary party would give the opposition a few more days to decide to join the working group that the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDUM) party set up after the June 7 leadership meeting between Prime Minister and SDUM leader Dimitar Kovachevski and the leader of the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE Hristijan Mickoski.

"Our door will remain open and I believe that the opportunity for dialogue will continue when the constitutional amendments enter Parliament, because according to the procedure there is a period of one month between their submission to Parliament and the first vote. After the leadership meeting we heard a clear position from VMRO-DPMNE that they are not against the inclusion of Bulgarians in the constitution, but they have certain conditions. We invite them to talk about conditions, which are realistic and that we can implement, not about those that are beyond the possibilities of the country. I hope that reason will prevail," Marichikj said, denying that there was pressure from the government on opposition MPs to vote in favour of the constitutional changes.

Every MP is free to make a decision, and it is MP's duty to debate, to present all the arguments and to be in dialogue, he noted. "I do not believe that dialogue should be replaced by pressure, but dialogue should not be replaced by speculation either," Marichikj said.

Marichikj answered journalists' questions ahead of a discussion on accelerating North Macedonia's EU accession process, focusing on key challenges and priorities. 

Before the discussion, former chairman of the Academy of Sciences and Arts in Northern Macedonia (MASA) Vlado Kambovski expressed his opinion on the constitutional amendments. According to him, Bulgarians are already listed in the constitution - under the heading "other peoples and communities", and the initiative for constitutional amendments " is knocking on an open door".

Kambovski stressed the need for dialogue and pointed out that in this period, MPs cannot be guided by passions or fears on an issue that, according to him, does not deserve to cause such a storm in people's emotions. He said that important sensitive issues should be discussed in a reasoned way without political calculations and manipulations and unnecessary populism.