After Siljanovska-Davkova’s veto, 2,158 amendments submitted to changes to the Public Procurement Law

A total of 2,158 amendments have been submitted to the draft law amending the Public Procurement Law after President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova refused to sign the decree promulgating it.

According to AIM, the governing majority has proposed removing Article 13 through an amendment, the provision that prompted the president’s veto. Most of the other amendments were submitted by SDSM. The draft law has been placed on the agenda for the plenary session scheduled for tomorrow, when Parliament will consider it again at third reading.

The president submitted the reasons for her decision in writing to Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi. The letter, sent on November 4, concerns the decree promulgating the amendments to the Public Procurement Law, which were adopted at the parliamentary session on October 26, 2026. Siljanovska-Davkova explained that she made her decision after careful consideration and consultations with experts, invoking Article 75, paragraph 3, of the Constitution.

In her view, Article 13 of the amendments raises serious concerns about the rule of law. It changes paragraph 4 of Article 132 of the Public Procurement Law: the wording that provided for the appointment of the chair and members of the State Commission for five years, with the right to be appointed once more, is replaced with a right to reappointment.

The president argued that the previous provision set a clear limit of 10 years, while the new wording is legally imprecise and could be interpreted as allowing unlimited reappointments. Citing opinions and recommendations from the Venice Commission, she considered the possibility of a second five-year term, or 5+5 years, and opposed opening the way to an unlimited number of terms.

Siljanovska-Davkova warned that if membership of the Public Procurement Commission brings considerable power and influence, allowing unlimited terms risks concentrating decisions on the spending of large sums of public money in the hands of a few people. She also recalled that, over recent decades, the body’s work has been accompanied by problems, suspicions and allegations of biased, irresponsible and unlawful conduct.

The president said she would understand limiting membership of the Public Procurement Commission to one five-year term, but questioned the rationale for allowing an unlimited number of terms. She urged Parliament, when reconsidering Article 13, to take into account the reasons for her veto and the principle of the rule of law.