In the course of December 2014 consultations were held with CSOs who actively contributed with comments and suggestions for improvement of the 1th draft Decision for Establishment of the Council for Cooperation between the Government and the Civil Society. In the last week of January 2015, the General Secretariat of the Government – Unit for Cooperation with NGOs and the TACSO Macedonian Office organized a second round of consultations on the 2th draft of the Decision.
A considerable number of CSOs` proposals submitted during the 1st consultation round were accepted and integrated in the 2th draft Decision (e.g. Council will hold at least four meetings, the president of the Council should be elected from the representatives of the civil society, new areas of work will be represented in the Council). However, the 2th draft Decision underwent drastic changes in the articles regulating the procedure for election of representatives from, the associations and foundations and the election of the Council`s president. Hence, according to the 2th draft Decision the representatives from the civil society will be elected indirectly by a Commission where the majority of members come from the state intuitions (new Art. 8, 9, 10). The Council President is to be elected by the Government (Art. 3, (4)).
We call on all interested organizations to support the bellow draft letter addressed to the General Secretariat of the Macedonian Government, demanding these two changes to be erased from the draft Decision. At the same time we demand a procedure where CSOs can elect their representatives in the Council directly and by public vote (as it stands in Art.8 of the 1th draft Decision), and the president to be elected by the Council and not by the Government.
All interested organizations are invited to support this joint letter by sending us a confirmation for support (with the full name of the organization) latest by Tuesday, 10th February 16:00h at executiveoffice@balkancsd.net.
Relevant documents (in Macedonian):
- Comparison of the critical articles
- 2nd Draft Decision (January 2015)
- 1st Draft Decision (November 2014)
- Summary of comments from TACSO consultations sent to GS (January 2015)
- Draft letter addressed to GS