Pushing, humiliation and the chaos that occurred after the New Year when citizens could not make an appointment and take out passports and personal documents, will remain unpunished. The initiative that was submitted by VMRO-DPMNE back in January while it was in the opposition, was only yesterday at a session of the Constitutional Court, and the constitutional judges decided not to initiate proceedings.

The party disputed the deadline for issuing passports and then claimed that the Constitutional Court could extend the deadline with a temporary measure, that is, the old passports would be valid even after February 12.

With the decision of the Constitutional Court not to initiate a procedure, there is no possibility of annulling this article, nor can citizens sue and demand their rights before the Constitutional Court. The court appreciates that chaos can be the subject of responsibility before other competent authorities, but not before the Constitutional one.

The party contested Article 3 of the Law on Travel Documents and demanded that the Court extend the deadline for issuing passports, that is, to review whether the citizens' constitutionally guaranteed rights to free movement and other freedoms and rights have been violated.

However, as suggested by the reporter judge Jadranka Dabović, and none of the constitutional judges ruled "against", Article 3 of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Travel Documents does not contradict the Constitution, and its implementation in practice is not competence of the Court, but of the Government.

According to the notifying judge, the deadline given for changing the documents - until February 12, 2022 - is in line with the constitutional amendments from the Prespa Agreement, which was voted in 2019, i.e. the international agreement that changed the name of the state in the Republic of North Macedonia. so personal documents had to be changed as well. As Dabović explained, the court only evaluates the constitutionality of the contested article, but is not competent for the inadequate implementation, and as arguments he pointed out that the citizens had a deadline of two years and seven months to replace their personal documents. On top of that, there was also a covid-crisis, and the Constitutional Court declared itself incompetent as to whether the citizens were informed or not.

According to the initiative submitted by VMRO-DPMNE, the state itself declared the expiration date of the validity of the travel documents on the printed forms at the moment of issuing each travel document, and then changed it by law to the direct detriment of the citizens. According to the initiative, the expiration of the period of validity earlier than the declared period of the documents imposed by the state, put the citizens in a state of lost legal protection and legal certainty. The party argued that by changing the validity date, all persons who obtained a travel document between July 2014 and July 2021 (when the impugned law comes into force) have been placed in an unequal/discriminatory position compared to all other persons because they obliged to reissue a travel document at their own double expense. This means that some citizens paid double for the same service, regardless of the fact that they conscientiously and responsibly changed their documents.

According to the allegations in the initiative, due to the operational and technical impossibility of issuing hundreds of thousands of travel documents within the stipulated period until February 12, 2024, even if all persons had applied by the specified deadline, the administrative services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs would not be able to produce them. all documents within the specified period.

"The petitioner claims that hundreds of thousands of citizens will not be able to leave the Republic and return to it after the specified date, and this will have an effect on their freedom of movement, as well as on economic turnover in the country. Due to the incredible congestion when applying and picking up the documents, citizens are forced to additionally defend their own moral integrity from various forms of humiliating behavior of the institutions, but also of citizens who, in order to exercise their own rights, violate the rights of others", it was written in the initiative.

Chaos arose after the New Year, when queues of citizens waited for hours to change their personal documents, while not being able to leave the country, and appointments were made with a delay of several months. The then opposition, and now the ruling party, blamed the former Minister of the Interior, Oliver Spasovski, for the chaos.

Why is the initiative now before the Constitution?

The Constitutional Court explains why the initiative reached the agenda now and explains about the change of presidential positions and the scheduling of the agenda.

- The judge-reporter of this case during his presentation at today's session mentioned that he received the report on the case from the advisor on 11.04.2024, a period during which the opinions of the Assembly and the Ministry of the Interior were collected and the analysis was made, and he submitted the case as completed to 27.05.2024. The next day, on May 28.05.2024, XNUMX, the last session of the term of the then president Dobrila Katsarska was held, whose agenda was already scheduled a week earlier. In the following days, the procedure for electing a new president of the Constitutional Court began. After the beginning of the mandate of the President Dr. Darko Kostadinovski, the dynamics of preparation of the daily agendas for the sessions depends on the number of subjects that are currently submitted or have already been submitted, according to which order today's session is determined, according to Ustaven.