almanac on security sector oversight in the Western Balkans

the General Staff and also can dismiss him or her. The Chief of the General Staff is
responsible for command of army units and is accountable to the president as well as
to the minister of defence.
Box 1: General Dimov dismissed from office
In 2010, the president dismissed General Zoran Dimov after consultations with the
minister of defence and chief of the general staff. The reasons were disobedience of
command and violation of the Macedonian Army Code (Alfa TV, 2010).
All legislation approved by parliament needs to be signed by the president. This “veto
power” is rarely employed. There have been no cases of legislation related to the
Armed Forces being vetoed by the president.
136
3.2. Parliament
The Macedonian Parliament has several oversight and control competencies related
to the Armed Forces: voting on PSOs, passing strategies, declaring war or a state of
emergency, etc. (Law on Defence, Article 17) 81 . In practice, oversight focuses mostly on
implementation of the government’s policies. Having in mind that the president of
the country is the head of the Armed Forces, MPs can initiate a procedure for deciding
on the accountability of the president through the Macedonian Constitutional Court.
No such motion has been initiated by parliament so far.
Parliament derives its oversight role regarding PSOs from the Law on Defence, which
authorises MPs to decide to send soldiers abroad (Law on Defence, Article 41). The
procedure is as follows: the government sends a proposal to parliament (Committee
on Defence and Security) including different elements such as a legal basis for sending
troops, mandate and finances aspects. It is up to committee members to discuss the
proposal, which should then be sent to a plenary session. In spite of these powers, MPs
have rarely substantially debated PSOs. For example, discussions of the advisability of
such missions or more detailed questions about the nature of missions (e.g. risk to soldiers
or other technical questions), are rarely raised. Nor do MPs substantially debate
the proposed mission budgets even though they receive basic financial information.
There are many reasons for this lack of debate. Primarily, as Macedonia progresses
towards the EU and NATO, there is a common belief that contributing to PSOs will
strengthen the bid to join these organisations. This is easily verified by examining
statistics when committee members vote on sending soldiers abroad. In all cases the
committee has voted in favour and with consensus. Secondly, given the lack of MP
expertise about PSOs, no substantial debate can be expected on technical aspects.
81 For more details on the competences of the parliament regarding the defence of the country please
also refer to Table 1 of this document.