Macedonian Vice PM Survives Dismissal Motion

The ruling majority, led by the centre-right VMRO DPMNE party, was enough to keep Naumovski at his post. 69 legislators voted against the motion for dismissal while 16 were in favour in the 120 seat assembly.

The motion was originally tabled in April by the opposition Liberal Democrats, LDP and the New Democracy, ND party but the vote was delayed for almost two months.

The opposition argues that Naumovski has caused a serious slowdown in reforms needed for the country to align the national legislation with that of the EU.

“In the last ten months Macedonia has marked a significant slowdown in the reform process needed for its EU integration and Naumovski holds the greatest responsibility for that,” Andrej Zernovski, MP from the LDP, said during the debate in parliament on Monday.

In response Naumovski said that the motion for his dismissal was unfounded and filed by two Eurosceptic parties. The VMRO DPMNE MPs who stood in his defence accused the LDP of playing the line of the official Greek policy, which they said tries to portray Macedonia as undeserving of further EU integration.

Naumovski has also been blamed for writing an internal memo restricting the Secretariat of European Affairs staff from communicating with the European Commission Delegation in Skopje. He has denied the claims.

The opposition parties hold Naumovski responsible for the adoption of the controversial anti-discrimination law that passed in parliament without a provision prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Many diplomats from EU countries, along with local observers, called the failure to include the provision very problematic.

Macedonian Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE head Nikola Gruevski in April stood in defense of Naumovski following the opposition's move to table the motion, arguing that although the minister's work might not be perfect he deserves to stay.

Last year Macedonia received a recommendation from the European Commission to start its EU accession talks, an accomplishment that is usually attributed to Naumovski’s predecessor, Ivica Bocevski, and others before him.

Although the recommendation was positive, in December Macedonia failed to get the desired date for the start of talks due to the blockade by Greece over the unresolved bilateral name spat. Some observers have blamed Naumovski for failing to keep up the pace of reforms since then.

At this week's European Council summit in Brussels, it is unlikely that Macedonia will get the desired start date, many observers say.

In addition, unnamed EU diplomats have been cited by local media as saying that the country might get a negative EU progress report this autumn if the decline in reforms continues.

They point to a lack of political dialogue and party influenced administration as areas that are particularly problematic.