What will be the fate of the Law on Languages in Northern Macedonia?

In a tense political atmosphere, judges of the Constitutional Court of Northern Macedonia will gather on Wednesday, December 11, to examine the constitutionality of certain language provisions that were adopted in 2018 and went into effect a year later.

Northern Macedonia's First Deputy Prime Minister, Izet Mlzi, coming from Albanian coalition V LEN, secured during a press conference Tuesday that the Law on Languages “will not be affected”.

“We as V LEN said the law would not be affected, the Constitutional Court confirmed this. The document has been issued that neither the Law on Language nor the official use of Albanian. The same was said by the Prime Minister, as did the head of state”, Medzit said.

Earlier last week, Medzit announced that Albanian judges in the Constitutional Court would boycott the December 11th session, with which he claimed the “vedience cannot have legitimacy”.

The chairman who must participate in all judges and if anyone is missing, then there is no legitimacy of decision”, Medzi said on December six.

What document is this about?

According to a recently published document prepared by a constitutional judge, the Constitutional Court reportedly should not initiate the procedure for assessing the constitution of the Law for Use of Languages”.

The document stresses that on December 11th no procedure will be launched to assess the constitutionality of the law, as it is based on the country's Constitution.

“Contents of the Law that is opposed to the use of languages as a whole has its constitutional basis and reasoning in the V Constitution of the Republic of Northern Macedonia. Therefore, we believe that its constitutionality cannot be questioned either with this amendment, nor with Article 51 paragraphs 1 and 2, Article 8 paragraph 1, as stated at the initiative”, the document says.

However, the document suggests that procedures for certain general formulas and two specific provisions of the law be initiated, related to the use of currency symbols and judicial processes. This means that Wednesday's session will not examine the constitutionality of the entire law, but only certain provisions.

The Constitutional Court, in turn, has announced that it will not comment on media distribution, credibility of published documents, as well as on upcoming political statements and reactions to the session.

Language Law

The law on the use of languages consists of 25 articles.

That law entered parliamentary procedure on September 5, 2017. The then president, Djordje Ivanov, refused to decree, arguing that the law was unconstitutional. However, on January 11th 2018, the law was passed by 69 votes, with no vote against or abstention.

The opposition, then led by VMRO-DPMNE, did not participate in the session.

Both President Ivanov and they described the law as unconstitutional.

The Law on Languages envisions extensive use of the Albanian language, and specifically mentions it in Article 2.

The main changes the new law brought were: “The use of the Albanian language even in judicial processes, bank notes and police uniforms”.

Following the adoption, the law is opposed by 13 initiatives presented by different citizens, political parties and associations. Among these, even the largest Macedonian party V MRO- The DPMNE, which was at the time in opposition and was committed to implementing “correction” after returning to power.

Although this party disputed almost every aspect, from the way the law was passed to its contents.

Now Prime Minister Hristian Mickoski, who comes from this party, has stressed that “will not happen anything” and has assured that the situation is “under control”.

“begs Albanian, Macedonian fellow citizens, all to be calm, all work is under control, everything is under control not to allow ourselves to succumb to the provocations of these people”, Mickoski said on Tuesday.

Earlier, he had said that not the entire law is being disputed, but “only two or three provisions”.

The Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) who are making “place “before the Constitutional Court, think otherwise.

DUI has expressed concern that if Article 23, paragraph 5 of the Law on Language Abnegation, then the same could become unmet.

MP Arber Ademi from DUI said on Tuesday that “18 provisions are at risk”.

A cut if it changes the context regardless of what the entire law says leaves 18 provisions. Read Article 23 paragraph 5 Trying to abroximate is the proposal to abrogu, then no institution will enforce the Albanian-language law”, Arben Ademi said during a debate on TV21.

What are you arguing about?

<x0.>initiators oppose the whole of the Law from the aspect of the Constitutional Amendment because it expanded the constitutional framework given in this amendment regarding the use of non-most communities' languages and defined the equality of another language spoken by at least 20% of citizens, with the Macedonian language and its Cyrillic alphabet as official language throughout the territory of the Republic and its international relations, the Constitutional Court report on what is subject to the rejection of 13 initiatives.

Consequently, articles or article parts proposed for the launch of the procedure to assess constitutionality are also part of the Venice Commission's remarks.

What are these remarks?

In 2019 the Venice Commission had given recognition to the Language Law, saying that some of its provisions exceeded international standards for regional and minority languages.

The Commission requested:

Reviewing the bilingual provisions in judicial procedures, recommending that these definitions be removed or limited due to technical and administrative difficulties that could cause.

The move for effective implementation of linguistic requirements, based on the provisions of the previous 2008 Law, to ensure their implementation without creating confusion, though, according to law connoisseurs, involved a close interpretation.

Resigning Article 3 of the Law, which envisions the use of Albanian in institutional communications and other areas, requiring a clearer definition of the area of implementation to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts in practice.

What can happen?

The Constitutional experts say that what the court can do on December 11th is to reject the initiative, decide to initiate a procedure for the law, or only for certain provisions, temporarily halt implementation, until the final decision is made, or even to return it to the Assembly for improvement.

Albanian academics with letter to Constitution

Like the 13 high-profile incidents, more than 250 Albanian intellectuals have signed an open letter addressing the Constitutional Court to act professionally rather than politically motivated decisions, because, as they say, “arbitrary decisions can have grave consequences in interethnic relations”.

They commemorate that the past of the Constitutional Court's work has caused <x0-tensions and frustrations, whenever it has made unilateral and arbitrary decisions, which have brought serious consequences to interethnic relations and violated Albanians' national rights for equality and justice, carried out through institutional ways”.

The law on the use of languages has been in the reins of the Constitutional Court for five years.

The balancer, now the most abolished, and the Language Law was included in the agenda a few months after VMRO- The DPMNE took power in northern Macedonia. / REL