The mission of the European Union in Macedonia issued a statement regarding the vote in Parliament to adopt urgent changes to the Criminal Code. The changes will reduce prison terms for cases of abuse of office, and are being proposed under the controversial EU flag procedure.

The Delegation of the EU is reviewing the proposals published on the Parliament website yesterday, on the basis of the EU standards and norms. We still can’t comment on the use of the EU flag in this specific case but we remind that the general rule is that the use of this procedure should be limited to proposals that align the domestic laws to the standards and norms of the EU, the delegation told the MIA news agency.