When the Law on Associations will enter into force depends on when it will be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia. The clubs will certainly be banned, the question is whether a name change will be forced. We cannot answer that as it will be a decision of each of these clubs. They will have the opportunity to either change their names or claim their rights through court. The Bulgarian state will support them in both cases, said the chief expert at the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhelyazko Radukov at the regular press briefing.

Can the Venice Commission stop the implementation of the law – practically not, because – first of all, the decisions of the Venice Commission are advisory, not mandatory. Secondly, a responsible government, when it goes to seek an opinion from the Venice Commission, it does so at the moment when the law is still a draft law, and not when it has already been adopted, he explained.

In this sense, we consider all the assurances we hear from Macedonia that the Venice Commission will probably stop the implementation of this law as unsustainable, said Radukov, reports BGNES.