Macedonia: No Deal on Constitutional Changes

The parties agreed to continue ironing out their differences and attempt another consultation by the month's end.

For the Prime Minister and head of the ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party, Nikola Gruevski, as well as for Branko Crvenkovski, the head of the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM, the demands of the ethnic Albanian parties were unacceptable.

The opposition Albanian New Democracy ND, and the junior ruling party Democratic Union for Integration proposed that the so-called double majority principle be applied in the Judicial Council and in the Constitutional Court.

This is to ensure that the ethnic Macedonian members of the council do not always outvote the ethnic Albanians members, they say.

The principle was introduced in the Macedonian parliament after the 2001 armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the state’s security forces. In essence, it means that for certain bills or decisions to pass they must have the support of the majority of legislators from the ethnic minority groups.

Both Gruevski and Crvenkovski agreed that this was not logical, arguing that the institutions under question are not political institutions like the parliament, but bodies constituted by judges who work based on their expertise and not their ethnicity.

Thursday's meeting was the second on this subject after consultations held in mid-March.

Proposed changes to the country's constitution include the removal of the justice minister from the Judicial Council, which according to the ruling party would help prevent the post from having political influence over the Judicial Council's decisions.

In addition, the VMRO DPMNE has proposed an increase in the number of members of the council who are elected by judges and a decrease in the number of members elected by the parliament, apparently also an effort to further strengthen the independence of the council.

However, the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, has expressed suspicion that there is more behind the proposed changes. Party officials have argued that at this point in time, when the country must urgently solve its name row with Greece to unlock its NATO and EU integration processes, constitutional changes would only distract public attention from real problems.

Only the head of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, Menduh Thaci, was not present at Thursday’s gathering. He was absent during the March discussion as well.