In the Parliament today, members of the ruling majority narrowly managed to begin the procedure of adopting the so-called “Bechtel laws” – a set of amendments meant to facilitate the construction of several highways by the US company.

After protests from archeologists, the majority decided to withdraw one of the amendments that would have allowed the Bechtel oversight engineers and not experts to decide on course of action if the crews come across an archeological site. VMRO-DPMNE coordinator Nikola Micevski warned that his group will leave the session if this amendment goes ahead, and it was eventually withdrawn.

As for the other laws, President Stevo Pendarovski warned that he may veto some of them – if they affect human rights. One of the amendments would allow the company to have its workers work longer than allowed per week, with longer overtime. Other amendments include moves to reimburse Bechtel for the gas taxes the company will pay and to exempt them from the value added tax.

As long as the members of Parliament sign off on these amendments but the members of Government are away and avoid to answer our questions, we will have the sense that there is tendency toward corruption, crime and shady deals following this project, Micevski said.

Maja Moracanin from the green DOM party voted against the amendments, even though she is part of the ruling majority. But Moracanin did not leave the Parliament and helped the Government procure the quorum it needed.