Skopje, 10 May 2023 (MIA) - Parliament during its session Wednesday adopted the need of passing several bills on the construction of Corridors 8 and 10d under a fast-track procedure.

Lawmakers adopted draft amendments, proposed by the government, to the Law on Determining Public Interest and nominating a strategic partner for the Corridor 8 infrastructure construction project (on highway sections Tetovo – Gostivar – Bukojchani and Trebenishta – Struga – Kjafasan) and Corridor 10d (on highway section Prilep – Bitola) as well as Law on Spatial and Urban Planning, the Law on Construction, the Law on Expropriation, and the Labor Relations Law, all of them EU-flagged to accelerate their adoption.

VMRO-DPMNE parliamentary group coordinator Nikola Micevski said that the ruling majority, by adopting these government-proposed bills, violates the highest act in the country, together with the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.

“Today we have five laws in front of us that refer to the construction of corridors 8 and 10d, whereat the Government has decided to abuse the EU flag procedure on these bills. This means that we will now have an obstructed debate as well as a limited amendment debate on these bills,” Micevski said.

Levica MP Borislav Krmov addressed several articles of bills procedurally. According to him, some bills are deliberately kept in a drawer, and some come forward at the session by violating the Rules of Procedure.

“At this session, the government is proposing five laws under EU flag, and nowhere have we seen that there is an alignment of the domestic legislation of these laws with the EU legislation. Institutional crime is taking place for the Parliament to cover the criminal actions, which will result in the implementation of the agreement signed between the government and Turkish-American consortium Bechtel-Enka,” Democratic Union MP, Pavle Trajanov said.

In line with the EU-flag procedure, the government-proposed bills will be reviewed by the Committee on European Affairs.