Brussels to Urge Macedonia to Publicise Spy Dossiers

The European Parliament in Brussels

The draft European Parliament Report on Macedonia, set to be put to a vote in mid-March, will urge the country's lustration commission “to communicate its findings directly to the public and transfer all necessary documents on a permanent basis to the Commission's premises”.

Macedonia’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party has in fact been mulling the same move in a bid to allay suspicions that it is abusing the lustration law for political purposes.

The European Parliament report “is in line with our intention to make the dossiers available to the public on the internet. That way the [Data Verification] Commission will be able to counter accusations with facts,” a ruling party MP told Balkan Insight under condition of anonymity.

The same legislator said the governing party would await the report before officially proposing this change to the Macedonian parliament.

Following the practice of many former Communist countries, Macedonia adopted a Lustration Law in 2008 aimed at rectifying injustices from the Communist era, when people were tried and jailed based on information from police informants.

According to the law all public office-holders, former and current politicians, journalists, university professors, lawyers, clergy and NGO activists must pass a probe before the Data Verification Commission or lose their posts.

However, many have voiced concerns about possible abuses of the law, saying they fear the ruling party is using the system to target political opponents.

In January Macedonia's Constitutional Court temporarily suspended several controversial provisions of the Lustration Law, curbing the wide range of professions and the time period covered by the law, which now applies until 2019.

The office of MEP Richard Howitt, the author of the draft report and the European Parliament Rapporteur on Macedonia, cautions that the report is not yet in its final form.

“There will almost certainly be some final amendments to the document”, Brian Dawson, communications assistant to Howitt, said.