The Assembly of Macedonia approved on Monday the amendments and additions to the Law on traffic safety, which extend the validity of the driver’s license with the name “Republic of Macedonia” until the end of 2024.<\/p>\n
The changes that were approved in the Assembly foresee the extension of the procedure until the end of the year for obtaining this document under the name “Republic of North Macedonia”, writes Radio Free Europe.<\/p>\n
The changes were approved in a quick procedure to avoid creating a mess with driver’s licenses, as the deadline for using the old name, “Macedonia” in personal documents expired on Monday at midnight.<\/p>\n
The law had caused chaos in front of the counters, but also many reactions after the announcement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Macedonia (MIA) that from February 13 driving licenses with the name “Macedonia” would be deemed unusable and that anyone who would use them, would face fines.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs had said that the driving licenses would be valid like the identity cards, even after the expiration of the deadline for changing them, on February 12.<\/p>\n
If this would be implemented, the consequences would mostly be felt by taxi drivers, bus drivers, transporters, and other vehicle drivers who have not yet changed their driver’s licenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very difficult, it causes us a lot of problems, since we are not making it even working, let alone without work. The state should not punish us because it is not our fault. There must be space, there must be tolerance because these documents still have a deadline. If they didn’t have [a deadline], fine, but while they have, then there should be tolerances”, said a taxi driver in Skopje before the decision of the Assembly.<\/p>\n
Jovan Mir\u010devski, a driver in a tourist agency, said that from Tuesday he will be out of work, along with many others, if the Parliament did not vote to extend the validity of the driver’s license.<\/p>\n
“We cannot change them because there are many procedures, many queues, long waits. It is impossible to do this in the stipulated time. If measures are not taken, I and many others will be out of work from Tuesday,” said Mir\u010devski.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Pance Toskovski, who is from the ranks of VMRO DPMNE, which is part of the technical government, blamed the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the previous government for the created situation as “it did not foresee the obligations that come out of the agreement with Greece”.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Toskovski submitted to the Assembly two proposals for changes to the Traffic Law, so that the validity of permits for internal use can be extended.<\/p>\n
“Today (Monday) is the last day when MPs who receive salaries from citizens will have the opportunity to prove that they are at the service of citizens, without political games. Only with the approval of these two proposals can the problem be overcome”, said Toskovski before the vote.<\/p>\n
The Parliamentary group of VMRO DPMNE had collected 20 signatures of deputies for the call of the emergency session of the Assembly to approve the proposals of the Ministry of Interior.<\/p>\n
A similar proposal was presented by the Social Democratic League, which is also blamed for the situation created for not intervening in time to find a legal solution.<\/p>\n
“The validity of drivers’ licenses, traffic permits and insurance policies will be extended. With the legal changes, citizens will be able to continue using them on the territory of the state”, said the deputy of SDSM, Darko Kaevski.<\/p>\n
After the meetings with the parliamentary groups in the Assembly, the Technical Prime Minister, Talat Xhaferi, supported the initiative of the deputies who also voted for the changes for the validity of the driver’s license until the end of the year.<\/p>\n
For the chaos created in front of the counters, the institutions also blamed the citizens, who, according to them, waited for the last moment to replace the documents even though they had enough time.<\/p>\n
The replacement of personal documents, passports, identity cards, driver’s licenses and traffic permits is an obligation for the citizens of North Macedonia, based on the Prespa Agreement with Greece on changing the name of the state, which was reached on June 17, 2018.<\/p>\n
The agreement with Greece entered into force in February 2019 and had a period of five years to implement its obligations, including the exchange of personal documents.<\/p>\n
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The Assembly of Macedonia approved on Monday the amendments and additions to the Law on traffic safety, which extend the validity of the driver’s license with the name “Republic of Macedonia” until the end of 2024. The changes that were approved in the Assembly foresee the extension of the procedure until the end of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":65937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,250,1803],"tags":[4905,1325,6072,150,243,151,505,588,4297,298,6073,6071,5881],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n