INTER-COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMITTEE
The legal position and authority of the Inter-Community Relations Committee derive from the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, or more precisely from the Amendment XII and the Law on the Inter-Community Relations Committee, adopted in 2007.
Pursuant to this Law, the Committee shall be elected by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia; it is comprised of 19 MPs-seven MPs from among the Albanian and Macedonian community each, and one MP from the Turkish, Vlach, Roma, Serbian and Bosnian ethnic communities. If there is no representative from а community, the Ombudsman in consultation with the relevant representatives from those communities, and after receiving the opinion, will propose the other members from the appropriate community to be members of the Committee to the Assembly.
One of the competences of the Committee includes examining the on the inter-community relations and giving proposals for their solution.
The Assembly is obliged to review opinions and proposals of the Committee and to decide thereof.
Relevant for the competence and obligations of the Committee (for more information see Law on Inter-Community Relations Committee) is the X Constitutional Amendment replacing Article 69 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, which regulates the voting procedure, i.e. introduces the so-called `Badinter Principle` in the adoption of laws that directly concerning the rights of national communities. The Law clearly indicates the laws on which the assembly decides with two – thirds majority votes from the total number of MPs, when there has to be majority votes from the attending MPs belonging to the communities that are not majority in the Republic of Macedonia.
The Inter – Community Relations Committee, in its work so far demonstrated and proved to have a great role, but also responcibility in the exercise of the general and special rights of the national communities, ie. of the members of the national communities. Thus, the Committee contributes in the development of the multicultural and multiethnic dimension of the Macdonian society for thrue co- existence of all citizens, strengthening the parliamentary democracy in the Republic of Macedonia.
Members of the Inter-Community Relations Committee are as follows: