Parliament revote of law on ratification of the name agreement


A session in which MPs will vote again for the law ratifying the name agreement has been scheduled on Thursday, it was agreed Monday in a coordination meeting of Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi and coordinators of parliamentary groups.

Last week, a decision of President Gjorge Ivanov was forwarded to the Assembly saying he wouldn’t sign the decree promulgating the law on the ratification of the final agreement for the settlement of the differences as described in the UN Security Council resolutions, the termination of the 1995 Interim Accord and the establishment of a strategic partnership between the parties.

Macedonia’s Parliament ratified the name deal on June 20 – 69 votes in favor and 40 against. The same day, the document was signed by Speaker Xhaferi before being set to the President’s cabinet. As announced earlier, Ivanov returned the bill without signing the decree.

Now, the law is in the hands of the lawmakers. The law on the ratification requires to be passed with a majority of 61 votes in favor. After a revote in Parliament, the agreement will be once again sent to the President, who is obliged under the Constitution this time to sign it.

It is expected after the revote President Ivanov again to refuse to sign the bill into law and to implement the so called ‘pocket veto’. He has already applied this veto regarding the Law on the Use of Languages.

Ivanov has backed up his decision not to sign the decree promulgating the law on the agreement’s ratification with a list of reasons.

The deal settling the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece was signed by the countries’ foreign ministers Nikola Dimitrov and Nikos Kotzias on June 17 in the Greek village of Psarades on Lake Prespa. The signing ceremony was attended by PM Zoran Zaev, his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras, UN name envoy Matthew Nimetz, UN top officials, high EU representatives, etc.

Parliament Speaker Xhaferi said that after the revote, he would send the law to the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia having one signature only. He also said he would do the same thing with the law on languages, whose decree remains unsigned by President Ivanov.