Skopje, 29 October 2024 (MIA) -- Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told reporters Tuesday an expert workgroup had been formed to draft a bill on equitable ethnic representation in public administration but Minister of Public Administration Goran Minchev was not part of it.

Mickoski was commenting on Minchev's statement on Monday that the Ministry of Public Administration was not developing any new ethnic diversity and equal employment policies following the Constitutional Court's recent decision to scrap the 'Balancer' affirmative action program over fraud, influence peddling, corruption and clientelism in hiring governmental workers.

"I am not commenting on the positions of individuals from the ranks of our coalition partners," the VMRO-DPMNE leader and PM Mickoski said. (Minchev is a ZNAM member.) "Yes, there is a workgroup that includes experts preparing a law that will be constitutional. Once it is defined, it will be will be available for public scrutiny."

Mickoski also said the bill would be put to a vote in Parliament only after it was approved by the Venice Commission, the independent advisory body of the Council of Europe that provides opinions and assistance on constitutional and legal issues.

"But yes, there is such a workgroup. Minister Minchev is not in it," the prime minister said in response to a question if there was indeed a workgroup drafting an equitable representation bill, considering that the other two ruling coalition partners said otherwise. 

Mickoski was talking to reporters ahead of a Bloomberg Adria conference titled "Macedonia's Economic Potential and Development Opportunities." mr/