Venice Commission’s Language Law Opinion Embarrasses North Macedonia Govt

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  • Risto the Great
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2008
    • 15658

    Venice Commission’s Language Law Opinion Embarrasses North Macedonia Govt

    Commission’s suggestion – that North Macedonia's language law is too generous to ethnic minorities – has potential to cause discord between the main governing party and its ethnic Albanian allies.


    Sinisa Jakov MarusicSkopjeBIRNDecember 9, 2019
    Commission’s suggestion – that North Macedonia's language law is too generous to ethnic minorities – has potential to cause discord between the main governing party and its ethnic Albanian allies.

    North Macedonia’s government on Sunday reversed its pledge to take on board the advice of the Venice Commission – to take a fresh look at the country’s 2018 language law – after seemingly bowing to pressure from its ethnic Albanian coalition partners.

    The ethnic Albanian parties at the weekend slated the Commission’s advice to the country to abandon some of the provisions on bilingualism.

    “We will not be naïve and allow the opening up of some issues that could divide us,” Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said on Sunday, commenting on the report of the advisory body to the Council of Europe.

    One day earlier, on Saturday, Zaev had reiterated that the government would honour the Commission’s recommendations.

    Over the weekend, however, ethnic Albanian parties in North Macedonia, including the governing Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, took a different standpoint, warning against any revision.

    Changing the language law would “practically bring us back to the times before 2001,” the DUI Vice-Prime Minister in charge of European issues, Bujar Osmani, warned.

    He was referring to the times before the 2001 armed conflict between ethnic-Albanian rebels and the security forces, which ended that year with the signing of the Ohrid Peace Accord.

    The peace deal saw the rebels disarm and their former leaders form the DUI. In exchange, the Albanian community, which makes up about a quarter of the population, obtained greater rights.

    The language law adopted in March 2018 was seen as the last legal provision stemming from the Ohrid Accord.

    But in its opinion on the Language Law, issued last Friday, the Commission said some of the provisions went too far and would be hard to implement. “The new law considerably extends the use of the Albanian language and in many respects goes beyond European standards,” it stated.

    It added that in certain areas, in particular concerning the use of Albanian in court, the law “may go too far by imposing what may prove to be unrealistic legal obligations on public institutions,” coupled by heavy sanctions in case of non-compliance and the possibility of reversing judicial verdicts if there is the lack of translation and interpretation during the proceedings.

    This “could significantly slow down the functioning of the entire judiciary, risking serious breaches of the right to a fair trial”, the Venice Commission warned.

    It also said the law lacked clarity in terms of which provisions applied only to ethnic Albanians and which ones to other communities.

    It recommended also that the obligation to use Albanian in internal and inter-institutional communications between civil servants be limited to written official communications, or the entry of the law into force be postponed until proper implementation of that provision was realistic.

    The 2018 law was passed largely on the insistence of the DUI, which conditioned its presence in Zaev’s coalition government on its adoption.

    After tough negotiations, the two main partners in government agreed to back the law, but also to immediately send it to the Venice Commission for an opinion, which they would later respect.

    The law was adopted despite the strong disapproval of the then President Gjorge Ivanov, who vetoed it at one point, and the opposition right-wing VMRO DPMNE party. They both insisted that the law was unconstitutional.

    The Venice Commission opinion arrived at a difficult for Zaev, ahead of early elections due next spring. His Social Democrats took power in mid-2017 advocating “one society for all” – but the party needs ethnic Albanian votes in the forthcoming early elections if it is to form another government.
    Macedonia oh Macedonia. I like a laugh as much as the next bloke. But ...

    Risto the Great
    MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
    "Holding my breath for the revolution."

    Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com
  • Karposh
    Member
    • Aug 2015
    • 863

    #2
    That's really saying something when even Europe is telling them they've bent over too much. Don't it just fill you with such pride...North Macedonia - the most liberal and progressive state in all of Europe.

    Comment

    • Liberator of Makedonija
      Senior Member
      • Apr 2014
      • 1595

      #3
      Should be clear to anyone with a brain that making the language of a 17% minority official at the national level, despite said minority largely residing in one region, is not only impractical but simply ridiculous and unnecessary.
      I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

      Comment

      • Gocka
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2012
        • 2306

        #4
        I hope this last year has been very educational for those who care to pay attention. This is yet another example of how the vast majority of internal problems are caused and solved internally, and are not the fault of some all powerful western liberal cabal that seems to be the straw man for everything.

        Macedonian politicians had the green light from Europe to back away from the dual language law, and what did they choose to do? Macedonian citizens witnessed this scenario in plain view and decided that they are okay with it. Who are we going to blame for this one? Soros? USA? EU? Santa Clause?

        As per usual its not some vast conspiracy but either incompetence or self interest or both. Zaev can't upset his Albanian buddies because he needs them to stay in power, plain and simple. Even liberal Europe said that the law is ridiculous and goes too far., but as usual Macedonians are oh so smart and will not be "naive".

        Macedonians refuse to take responsibility for their country and the people they elected to run it. They are completely uninterested in anything that happens. So who is to blame for that? Another good example is how the Macedonian educational system ranks as one of the worst in the developed world, second worst in Europe after only Kosovo. That is a purely internal failure. You can be under all the pressure and coercion in the world, why can't you educate your children properly? Basic education like reading, writing, and mathematics don't require fancy technology or vast resources, its basic stuff that they just can't get right.

        Macedonians problems are not external and they never have been, at least since independence. Its systemic, its cultural. Its the way they view the world and themselves. The choices they make, the morals and principals they chose to follow or not. Running a small country with a basic stable standard of living is not rocket science, it just requires you to roll up your sleeves and have a little integrity in what you do and what you stand for.

        And Macedonians are the same dishonest pieces of shit everywhere they go, only they have a little bit more money in the diaspora. Still no morals or integrity though.

        Comment

        • Risto the Great
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2008
          • 15658

          #5
          Gocka, refer picture above.
          Risto the Great
          MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
          "Holding my breath for the revolution."

          Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

          Comment

          • Gocka
            Senior Member
            • Dec 2012
            • 2306

            #6
            Originally posted by Risto the Great View Post
            Gocka, refer picture above.
            That's the saddest part. Look at the rest of that lot, the monkey should actually fair better than half of them if not all of them. We are dead last among THAT bunch.

            If we half as useful as monkeys I would be over the moon.

            Comment

            • Karposh
              Member
              • Aug 2015
              • 863

              #7
              Originally posted by Gocka View Post
              Macedonians refuse to take responsibility for their country and the people they elected to run it.
              Two things...

              1. Should we even allow ourselves to refer to these people who sold out their country as Macedonians?

              2. The clever Northerners will tell you it's not their fault. Zaev got in illegally as he clearly did not receive the majority vote in the last election. They are completely absolved of the sins of their leaders.

              Comment

              • Gocka
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2012
                • 2306

                #8
                Originally posted by Karposh View Post
                Two things...

                1. Should we even allow ourselves to refer to these people who sold out their country as Macedonians?

                2. The clever Northerners will tell you it's not their fault. Zaev got in illegally as he clearly did not receive the majority vote in the last election. They are completely absolved of the sins of their leaders.
                All Macedonians sold out their country. There is enough blame to go around everywhere.

                For generations, and this goes back even before any of you old folk lingering around these forums, you know who you are. For generations Macedonians have chosen to flee their homeland to all corners of the globe. Endure all sorts of hardships. Divide themselves from their families and live out their lives in far away lands.

                Damned be the first Macedonian who got on a boat and left Macedonia for a "better" life.

                If Macedonians could not or did not ever leave Macedonia in the first place, things would have been very different. Because when you know you have no choice but to stay where you are, then you are going to demand that things get better. Today in Macedonia, people just don't care what happens to Macedonia, because the vast majority don't plan to have a future there. Their efforts are fully focused on leaving at all costs and doing whatever they can in the meantime to get by.

                We can't look at Macedonians in 2020 with out seriously considering how it all got to be this way.

                Our solution as a people has always been to leave. This is now in 2020, in 1920, in 1820. We are willing to go to any corner of the globe, to work any job, and endure to anything. Apparently the only thing we are not willing to do is roll up our sleeves and actually make our homeland a half decent place to live. For generations if our people had just said lets make this place better instead of leaving, then maybe things would be very different today, maybe we as a people would be very different today.

                I see the Macedonians here in the US. Its not the same as being in your homeland. You can be educated, you be successful, but there is still something missing. For some reason sleeping in my dinky bed in the village in the home my grandfather built still feels better than my fancy american home.

                I envy people in France, Germany, Sweden, etc. The fact that they can live in their homelands and be content. The fact that they are constantly immersed in their own culture and surrounded by their families. Where they live might no be perfect but they are happy and they know they can work out whatever issues they have.

                No one can convince me that what we have now, huge populations of Macedonians living spread out over the whole globe is better for Macedonia, or even for the Macedonians who live abroad. Its all wrong, and I haven;t the slightest idea what should be done about it, nor any hope that anything will change.

                Comment

                • Liberator of Makedonija
                  Senior Member
                  • Apr 2014
                  • 1595

                  #9
                  A lot of Macedonians left due to war, can't really blame them.
                  I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

                  Comment

                  • Liberator of Makedonija
                    Senior Member
                    • Apr 2014
                    • 1595

                    #10
                    Apparently Bujar Osmani proclaimed that if the government went back on the language law due to the commission's verdict, he would "mobilise Albanians like we did back in 2001": A weak government held to randsome by a minority political bloc......
                    I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

                    Comment

                    • Karposh
                      Member
                      • Aug 2015
                      • 863

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Liberator of Makedonija View Post
                      Apparently Bujar Osmani proclaimed that if the government went back on the language law due to the commission's verdict, he would "mobilise Albanians like we did back in 2001": A weak government held to randsome by a minority political bloc......
                      Don't worry my friend, I'm sure Zaev's new and improved Macedonian Special Forces Regiment "Wolves" will take care of it should that ever eventuate. The very European & PC, quota-filled members of the Albanian community in the regiment will make sure of it.

                      Comment

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