The Parliament of North Macedonia with 46 votes “for” and 54 “against” today Wednesday rejected the amendment filed by the official opposition party, the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, to extend the validity of the old passports of the country’s citizens until the end of this year. Old passports say “Republic of Macedonia”

The MPs of the governing majority voted against the amendment, stating that this amendment contradicts Article 118 of the Constitution, which states that the international agreements signed by the country and ratified by the Parliament (Prespa Agreement) they are an integral part of the internal legal order and cannot be modified by another law.

It is noted that on February 12, 2024, the passports in which the old name of the country was written “Republic of Macedonia” ceased to be valid, based on the Prespa Agreement. By way of explanation, on February 12, 2024 five years have passed since the Prespa Agreement entered into force and according to the agreement, within this interval, the citizens of the country must replace their travel documents, if they want to travel abroad, so that they show the new name of the state: Republic of North Macedonia.

According to the data of the Ministry of Interior of North Macedonia, approximately 1,370,000 new passports have been issued so far, while an estimated 400,000 more citizens have not managed to replace their old passports, due to organizational problems and a lack of logistical infrastructure of the competent police authorities, as a result of which there are many complaints from citizens who try to replace their old passports and cannot. The whole issue of the disturbance regarding the replacement of travel documents of citizens of North Macedonia has been at the center of the political confrontation between the government and the opposition lately.

Those citizens of North Macedonia who have not replaced their old passports they cannot travel abroad, with the exception of countries with which North Macedonia has bilateral agreements on crossing the border with the presentation of a police ID (Serbia, Albania, Kosovo).

Also, Switzerland has announced that for the time being it still recognizes the oldest passports of citizens of North Macedonia.

On the issue of replacing passports in North Macedonia, the EU diplomatic mission in Skopje said today that the country must continue to respect international agreements.

“It is important that North Macedonia continues to respect international agreements, including its commitments to replace travel documents contained in the Prespa Agreement. We remind you that the recognition of travel documents issued by third countries (including from North Macedonia) is the responsibility of each (EU) member state separately” reads the response of the EU diplomatic mission in Skopje to the state news agency of North Macedonia “MIA”, regarding the EU position on the amendment tabled by VMRO-DPMNE to extend the validity of travel documents until the end of this year.