Skopje, 18 August 2023 (MIA) — With 70 votes in favor, 47 against and no abstentions, lawmakers Friday reached the required 61 vote majority to adopt the 123rd parliamentary session's topic of debate: starting the procedure of constitutional updates by adding the Bulgarian community and five other ethnic communities. The debate that is to follow may last up to ten days.

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski is currently addressing the MPs. 

The decision to change the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote, or 80 votes. If the need for constitutional changes is adopted, Parliament sets the official timeframe in which the government needs to draft the amendments.

The proposed updates to Constitution involve the addition of nationalities into the Preamble and into Articles 49 and 78 of the Constitution, when listing the communities living in the country.

Into the wording "The citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Macedonian people, as well as citizens living within its borders who are part of the Albanian people, the Turkish people, the Vlach people, the Serbian people, the Romany people, the Bosniak people and others", a comma is to be placed after "the Bosniak people" and the following to be added: "the Bulgarian people, the Croatian people, the Montenegrin people, the Slovenian people, the Jewish people and the Egyptian people."

The amendments are required to continue the country's European integration and open the chapters of its EU membership negotiations. mr/