Parliamentary committees to discuss ratification of Third Protocol and environmental law amendments

Two parliamentary committees will meet today in Skopje to consider a package of international and domestic proposals, including the ratification of a Council of Europe protocol and planned changes to North Macedonia’s environmental and foreign-affairs laws.

The Legislative-Legal Committee has before it a draft law to ratify the Third Protocol to the General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe, and a draft amendment to the Law on Foreign Affairs in first reading. The constitutional basis cited for ratifying the protocol is Article 68(1)(6) of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, which states that the Assembly ratifies international treaties by law.

According to the parliamentary explanatory note, the Government adopted a decision to accede to the Third Protocol and the proposal for ratification was prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. The decision was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia No. 14/2026 of 29 May 2026. The Third Protocol was adopted in Strasbourg on 6 March 1959 and entered into force on 15 March 1963. The explanatory material notes that the protocol originally opened for signature by members of the Social Development Fund and later allowed accession by new members of the Council of Europe and of the Social Development Fund — which on 1 November 1999 changed its name to the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).

Bank status and legal protections

The explanatory text attached to the ratification draft describes the protocol’s legal purpose: to regulate the Bank’s legal personality, the legal treatment of its property, funds, transactions and activities in member states, and the legal status of its organs and officials. It states that the Bank’s property and funds enjoy immunity from seizure, provisional measures or enforcement in member states until a final judgment is rendered against the Bank, and that such property and funds are immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation or any other form of seizure by executive or legislative action.

The material also summarizes the CEB’s role: the Bank was founded in 1956 by eight Council of Europe member states as a multilateral financial institution with a social mandate, and North Macedonia became a CEB member in 1997, giving it the right to borrow from the institution.

On the Legislative-Legal Committee agenda is also a first‑reading proposal from MP Sali Murati of the Movement of the Turks in Macedonia for Justice and Democracy, part of the "European Front". The amendment aims to remove a provision that has been criticized as constitutionally problematic because it effectively disqualifies holders of multiple citizenship from appointment as ambassador or general consul. The proposal’s principal solution is to delete the word "only" from Article 36(1)(1) and Article 49(1)(1) of the Law on Foreign Affairs, leaving the requirement that the appointee "to be a citizen of the Republic of North Macedonia" without excluding citizens who also hold another nationality. The proposal argues this change respects constitutional principles of equality (Article 9), the right to participate in public functions (Article 23) and equal access to jobs (Article 32(2)), while keeping the condition that candidates be citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia.

The Committee on European Affairs will consider, in first reading, a draft law amending and supplementing the Law on Environment. The primary objective is to transpose Directive 2014/52/EU so as to strengthen the environmental impact assessment procedure, improve environmental protection, increase resource efficiency and support sustainable development.

Photo: press material from the event