The three initiatives merged into one, challenging the provisions of the Law on Misdemeanors, which relate to the functioning of the Safe City system, were rejected at a session of the Constitutional Court. These initiatives were filed, as it stands, because the violation messages sent to road users are only in Macedonian, not Albanian, the system is valid only in a few cities, not in the entire country, and also because of the obligation to submit a mobile phone number and email address to the Ministry of Interior (MoI). According to the arguments of Constitutional Court Judge Ana Pavlovska-Daneva, the law applies to the entire country without exception.
“Regarding the territorial application of a law, the Law on Misdemeanors does not contain a provision stating that it applies to one, two or three municipalities, but rather that it will apply to the entire territory. The application of the law is applied and the executive branch decides on that. I do not know what we would repeal when there is no such provision in the law, it applies to the entire territory. Of all the arguments, I propose rejecting our jurisdiction over the initiatives, because there is no reason to initiate a procedure, or, alternatively, the decision to be that we are not competent to apply the law. We do not find any basis for initiating a procedure anywhere,” said Judge Pavlovska-Daneva.
As for the allegations overthe lack of use of the Albanian language, the Court’s president DarkoKostadinovski said that the Safe City project was designed to recognize a vehicle, a registration, not a language.
“I believe that the message should be in Macedonian, because it is the official language and that it is a right and duty for all citizens. It is good that the messages are in Macedonian and English because even a foreigner can commit an offense. I think the issue of language is completely correctly regulated in the Law on Offenses, where it refers to the use of language, but in the procedure. The text message is enough to be in Macedonian and English. That system does not register a person, but a vehicle. It will then use the Albanian language in all phases of the procedure. There is no obligation to own a mobile phone, but there is no obligation to own a vehicle either. However, the reality is digitalization,” said Kostadinovski.
