Parliament awaits the offer from NATO


The Macedonian Parliament is preparing for the procedures that follow before the country’s NATO membership. The Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security will propose a dein Parliament on supporting the accession process for Macedonia’s NATO membership.
“We expect that this declaration will be adopted at the session of the Assembly next Tuesday, July 17th,” said Parliament Speaker Hari Lokvenec.
At the coordination meeting of members of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security, held yesterday, all representatives of the parliamentary groups gave their support. Lokvenec welcomed Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s initiative for a meeting of all parliamentary parties on which the details of the referendum would be discussed.
Regarding the establishment of the State Electoral Commission (SEC), which is crucial for holding the referendum, Lokvenec said that it is a priority for all.
“We count on the conscientiousness of the parliamentary opposition and the will to unlock this extremely important process for all citizens in the country. The establishment of the SEC opens the way for starting all processes related to the referendum announcement,” Lokvenec said.
Regarding the demands of the opposition before electing the new composition of the SEC, to enact laws on financing of political parties and for government, Lokvenec thinks that setting a condition every day, supplemented by another condition, is obsolete. He stressed that the Law on Financing of Political Parties and the Electoral Code are fully harmonized.
“You’re talking about the government law and some kind of Przino government is mentioned. We all witnessed the need to make such a decision to introduce a pre-election Przino government. The Przino government fulfilled its role and function. After the Przino government, we had two rounds of elections – parliamentary and local, which from all relevant factors were assessed at the highest democratic level,” Lokvenec stressed at a press conference in the Parliament.
The main opposition party says they support the Declaration on Supporting the Accession Process for Macedonia’s NATO Membership, which the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security will propose to parliament.
“I would like to emphasize that this Declaration is nothing new. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE MPs will vote in favor of a declaration on supporting Macedonia’s NATO membership, proposed by the defense and security committee. VMRO-DPMNE has always supported declarations in support of Macedonia’s EU, NATO membership,’,” said MP Dragan Danev from VMRO-DPMNE.
He reminded that the first Declaration on the Entry of the Republic of Macedonia into the NATO Alliance was submitted in 1993 by VMRO-DPMNE and voted consensus by all political parties in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia at that time.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev stressed that full integration of our country, but also of the region in NATO, makes our freedom complete, provides security, stability, sustainable peace, good interethnic relations, economic development and social well-being.
“Achievements this year that ensure equality and Euro-Atlantic integration are the aspirations of all citizens and political parties in the country, so we should all work together to successfully complete this process. These achievements are the result of the joint work of our citizens, political parties, civil society, academics, media and international friends. This dream of our citizens that is beginning to be realized today requires us to unite around Euro-Atlantic Macedonia,” the President of the Macedonian Government said.
In contrast, the party Levica believes that the Macedonian diplomacy, instead of a clear and unequivocal invitation, received just an “applause” and an ultimatum to knock at the NATO doors as a North-Macedonian diplomacy at the NATO summit in Brussels next year.
“This is not only a defeat for Plan 3-6-9, but a defeat for the people who were again tricked by SDSM. Instead of the government dealing with the accumulated internal problems, and start pulling the people out of the quicksand of social misery, the Macedonian diplomacy of the SDSM-DUI duo socially buried the people in a situation of dangerous interethnic relations even deeper, will additionally harass the poor to come out and vote at the announced referendum on self-renaming,” stated members of Levica.