Skopje, 29 July 2021 (MIA) – North Macedonia’s Parliament on Thursday passed amendments to the citizenship law with 57 MPs voting in favor, 32 against and one in abstention. The amendment regulates the status of people from former Yugoslav republics who had been living in the country until the day independence was declared in 1991. They should be issued citizenship in a period of three years after the law enters into force. Earlier during a debate on the changes, VMRO-DPMNE MP Bojan Stojanovski said the issues should be approached from a legal aspect rather than being viewed as an issue regarding ethnic origin. “It is in the interest of all citizens Parliament to adopt this law that regulates the issues of people affected by the problem and that guarantees all constitutional and legal norms of the country,” he said voicing criticism that remarks of the opposition weren’t taken into consideration. VMRO-DPMNE MP Eli Panova said the EU-flagged law, adopted in fast-tracked procedure, was not in line with the European citizenship convention. “Everyone is entitled to citizenship. I feel empathy for all those living here that have no citizenship. The issue with these people is that they could have been issued citizenship only if the authorities knew how to apply existing rules. People should get citizenship under certain conditions, but not under these envisaging that one hospital bill is enough to secure citizenship,” Panova said, adding the amendments to the citizenship law create conditions for it to be misused. In a response to Panova’s speech, Halil Snopche of Alliance for Albanians said that disinformation was being spread in Parliament and accused her of not reading the bill. “To further explain this to the public, the bill refers to people who had lived in the country until 1990 but lost the citizenship afterwards. At one point, they held Yugoslav citizenship, but they lost it,” Snopche said adding that some 15 documents they should provide to secure citizenship.