Levica accuses VMRO‑DPMNE of seeking control over Council for Civil Oversight
Levica warns party ties were prioritised when the parliamentary committee proposed two candidates for the Council that oversees communications surveillance.
Levica has accused the ruling VMRO‑DPMNE of attempting to exert political control over the body tasked with monitoring state surveillance, after the parliamentary committee proposed two new members for the Council for Civil Oversight during the Assembly's 130th session.
Who the Council is and why it matters
The Council for Civil Oversight is set out in the Law on Surveillance of Communications and is meant to provide an additional check on institutions authorised to carry out surveillance measures. Its mandate is to verify whether those institutions implement legally prescribed procedures when conducting communications surveillance.
In a party statement Levica argued that the government is turning the Council into "another testing ground for political influence" and prioritising party ties over expertise and independence. "DPMNE is again reaching for one of the most sensitive institutional bulwarks against the abuse of state power. Instead of independent oversight of the security services, the ruling party is turning the Council for Civil Oversight into yet another testing ground for political influence, where partisan connections clearly weigh more than expertise and independence," the statement said.
Levica says the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Issues and Appointments, acting on a proposal from MP Mile Lefkov, put forward two candidates: Andon Damovski, a social worker, and Gordana Stefkovska‑Veljanovska, a psychologist.
The party also noted that "What the authorities are keeping quiet about is that Veljanovska is the wife of Robert Veljanovski, director of the Drama Theatre and a former member of the Executive Committee of VMRO‑DPMNE." Levica said five other candidates with training in legal and security fields failed to secure the committee’s support.
Levica pointed to findings by the European Commission that the Council has not functioned since it was legally established in 2018. The party added that in 2025 the parliamentary Commission for Oversight of Communications Surveillance did not conduct any oversight visits of the authorised bodies, operators or the Operational‑Technical Agency. "VMRO‑DPMNE is trying to establish control over the controllers, while real civil oversight has for years remained only a dead letter on paper," Levica warned, linking the nominations to the government’s announced plans to reshape the security‑intelligence sector and to EC concerns about insufficient independence and institutional weaknesses.
Photo: press material from the event
