Skopje, 27 December 2024 (MIA) — Minister of Public Administration Goran Minchev said Friday it did not matter when the new bill on promoting ethnic diversity in hiring public administration staff would be voted into law as long it was written well and not driven by political partisanship. He said the law needed to be of substance, quality, and applicable in the long term.

"Equitable representation of ethnic communities is a constitutional category, which stems from the Ohrid Framework Agreement," Minister Minchev said. 

The new bill should be "made to be solid" and without any interference from parties and politics, he said in response to a reporter's question whether the new draft law on equitable ethnic representation in public administration would be adopted in the foreseeable future.

Minchev said the drafting of the law should involve constitutional experts. 

"After the draft law is created, it should be sent to the Venice Commission and receive their positive opinion so we can start the process of adopting the law," he said.

According to Minchev, public administration hiring had been more equitable between 2001 and 2015 — before the now scrapped 'Balancer' ethnic diversity program was introduced — than while it was in effect.

"There was a lot of outrage about scrapping the Balancer, but statistical data shows that from 2001 to 2015, when there was no Balancer [...] there was a greater number of ethnic community hires than after it was introduced," he said. mr/