Siljanovska-Davkova: Macedonia Holds the Record for Constitutional Amendments, and Many Were Imposed From Outside

President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova marked the approaching 35th anniversary of the Constitution with a diagnosis that hardly sounds festive. At a meeting with the Macedonian Association of Young Lawyers, she said Macedonia is the record-holder for the number of constitutional amendments, many of which were imposed from outside.

She isn't speaking from the sidelines. In 1991 she was an external member of the Constitutional Commission, and at the meeting she walked through the stages of its adoption - from the Draft Constitution, through the public consultation that produced numerous comments and proposals, to the debate between MPs and experts. The Constitution was proclaimed on 17 November 1991, and the original text had 134 articles.

Her assessment is positive, but not unreserved. According to the president, some of the solutions have not passed the test of time, the text contains imprecise and unclear provisions, and the legal terminology is inconsistent, which leaves room for different interpretations. Macedonia, she says, is a rare example of a state that has changed the preamble of its Constitution twice.

Her main message is that the Constitution should be treated not only as the highest legal act but as the most important social contract between citizens and the state. She proposed a more active parliamentary Constitutional Commission, with outside experts in constitutional law, that would continuously monitor how the Constitution is implemented and propose solutions. She also wants the relationship between Macedonian and European law to be regulated more clearly as a constitutional matter.

The young lawyers put the emphasis on constitutional patriotism and education about the Constitution, and asked Parliament to follow procedure consistently and open room for an expert and inclusive debate in any future amendments.

The timing of this message is no accident. New constitutional amendments are once again part of Macedonia's European agenda. If the president herself says that some of the amendments so far were imposed from outside, and that the text became harder to read with each one, then the real question is not how many times the Constitution has been changed - it's how many of those changes were decisions made at home.