U.No.251/2024

Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia

U.No.251/2024

Skopje, 25 June 2025

Acting on the basis of Article 110 and Article 112 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia and Article 72 Indent 1 of the Act of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia (“Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” No. 115/2024), at its session held on 25 June 2025, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia, composed of Darko Kostadinovski LLD, President of the Court, and the Judges Tatjana Vasikj-Bozadjieva LLM, Jadranka Dabovikj-Anastasovska LLD, Osman Kadriu LLD, Dobrila Kacarska, Ana Pavlovska-Daneva LLD and Fatmir Skender LLM, adopted the following

D E C I S I O N

1. Part II “General Part”, Item 5 Subitem 1 in the part “,The total resident population’ consists of the following persons – units of the Census” and Subitem 2 in the part “,The total non-resident population’ consists of the following persons – units of the Census” of the Methodology for the Preparation, Organisation and Conduct of the Census of the Population, Households And Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia, 2021 (“Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” No. 30/2021), are hereby REPEALED.

2. This Decision shall be published in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia”.

Reasoning

I

Acting upon the initiative submitted by Skender Redjepi from Skopje, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia, at its session held on 12 March 2025, adopted Resolution U.no.251/2024 whereby it initiated proceedings for review the constitutionality and legality of the provisions of the Methodology for the Preparation, Organisation and Conduct of the Census of the Population, Households And Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia, 2021 (hereinafter: the Methodology), indicated in the operative part of this Decision.

This was due to the fact that a founded question arose concerning the conformity of the contested provisions of the Methodology with Article 8 Paragraph 1 Indent 3 and Article 51 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, and Article 17 Paragraph 2 Indent 1 of the Law on the Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia 2021*.

II

The Court established that the contested part “,The total resident population’ consists of the following persons – units of the Census” is contained in Subitem 1 of Item 5 (“Categories of population for which data shall be provided by the Census”) of Section II “General Part” of the Methodology.

Subitem 1 contains four indents relating to the persons constituting the resident population, namely: persons who are citizens with a place of usual residence in the Republic of North Macedonia, irrespective of whether at the moment of the Census they are located at their place of residence or in another location within the Republic of North Macedonia; foreign citizens residing in the Republic of North Macedonia for more than 12 months (one year), with authorisation for permanent or temporary residence; persons whose place of residence is in the Republic of North Macedonia and who are its citizens, but who, at the time of the Census, are staying abroad for less than 12 months (one year) for work or another reason, together with the members of their households residing with them; persons whose place of usual residence is in the Republic of North Macedonia, and who, at the time of the Census, are working in the diplomatic and consular representations of the Republic of North Macedonia abroad, in the United Nations and its organisations, in the representations or representatives of chambers of commerce abroad, in business units abroad, as military representatives of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia abroad, and citizens engaged on the basis of international, technical and other cooperation, as well as the members of their households temporarily residing abroad with the aforementioned persons (regardless of the duration of the stay abroad on any of the stated grounds).

This Subitem contains a separate paragraph with four indents relating to the persons, in addition to those already mentioned, who fall within the total resident population, provided that they have been continuously present in the country for more than 12 months, namely: foreign citizens with recognised refugee status who are present in the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census; foreign citizens with recognised right of asylum on the grounds of subsidiary protection who are present in the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census; foreign citizens who have submitted an application for recognition of the right of asylum and who are present in the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census and other persons who are present in the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia at the time of the Census (and who fulfil the previously defined criteria).

The Court also established that the contested part “,The total non-resident population’ consists of the following persons – units of the Census” is contained in Subitem 2 of Item 5 of Section II “General Part” of the Methodology.

Subitem 2 contains two indents relating to the persons falling within the category of total non-resident population: citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia who, at the time of the Census, have been residing abroad for more than 12 months (one year) for work or another reason, together with the members of their households residing with them; and foreign citizens residing in the Republic of North Macedonia for up to 12 months (less than one year), with authorisation for temporary residence.

III

The rule of law is a fundamental value of the constitutional order of the Republic of North Macedonia, pursuant to Article 8 Paragraph 1 Indent 3 of the Constitution.

According to Article 51 of the Constitution, in the Republic of North Macedonia laws must be in conformity with the Constitution, and all other regulations must be in conformity with the Constitution and with law. Everyone is obliged to respect the Constitution and the laws.

Article 110 Indent 2 of the Constitution provides that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia shall decide on the conformity of other regulations and of collective agreements with the Constitution and with the laws.

According to Article 112 Paragraph 2 of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court shall repeal or annul any other regulation or general act, collective agreement, statute or programme of a political party if it establishes that they are not in conformity with the Constitution or with law.

Article 1 of the Law on the Census of the Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia 2021* (“Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” Nos. 19/2021 and 73/2021) provides that this Law regulates the content, preparation, organisation and conduct of the Census of the Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia 2021 (hereinafter: the Census), the competent authorities for the conduct of the Census, the rights and obligations of the competent authorities, the expert bodies and other participants in the conduct of the Census, the rights and obligations of data providers in the Census, the units covered by the Census, the census areas, the use of languages in the Census, the manner of conducting the Census, the use, storage and protection of census data, the processing and publication of census data, the informing of the population concerning the objectives and significance of the Census, and its financing.

Pursuant to Article 4 Paragraph 1 of this Law, the Census shall be conducted in the period from 5 to 30 September 2021, while according to Paragraph 2 of the same Article, the Census shall be conducted on the basis of the situation as of 4 September 2021, at 24:00 hours (the critical moment of the Census).

Article 5 Paragraph 1 of the Law specifies which data shall be collected by the Census (regarding the population, households and dwellings on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia).

The Law contains a separate Chapter II entitled “Units to be Covered by the Census” (Articles 6–12). Consequently, in line with the cited Article 5 of the Law, Article 6 thereof determines the scope of the Census.

Thus, pursuant to Paragraph 1 of this Article, these are: citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia who have a domicile or residence in the Republic of North Macedonia, irrespective of whether at the time of the Census they are in the Republic of North Macedonia or abroad (Indent 1); foreign citizens residing in the Republic of North Macedonia with a residence permit (Indent 2); persons without citizenship who, at the time of the conduct of the Census, are present in the Republic of North Macedonia (Indent 3). Thereafter, according to Paragraph 2 of the same Article, this also includes the households of the persons from Paragraph 1 of this Article. Finally, Paragraph 3 of this Article provides that dwellings and other inhabited premises shall be covered by the Census.

In addition to determining the scope of the Census, Article 7 Indents 1-3 of the Law define the categories of persons who shall not be covered by it. These are: the diplomatic staff of foreign diplomatic and consular missions in the Republic of North Macedonia and the members of their families (Indent 1); foreign military personnel and the members of their families located in the Republic of North Macedonia, as well as members and representatives of international organisations and institutions who, at the time of the Census, are residing in the Republic of North Macedonia (Indent 2); and foreign citizens who, at the time of the Census, are present in the Republic of North Macedonia on official duty, private visits, for medical treatment, tourism and similar travel (Indent 3).

According to Article 15 of the same Law, the Census shall be organised and conducted by the State Statistical Office.  

Paragraph 2 of Article 17 of the Law establishes the powers of the Director of the State Statistical Office in relation to the Census. Among other things, the Director prescribes the Methodology for the Census with definitions of the units to be enumerated and the features for which data are to be collected (Indent 1).

On the basis of the authorisation under Article 17 Paragraph 2 Indent 1 of the Law on the Census of the Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia 2021*, the Director of the State Statistical Office adopted the Methodology, which was published in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” No. 30/2021 of 4 February 2021.  

From the analysis of the provisions of the Law on the Census of the Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia 2021* and of the Methodology, it follows that the Census is a statistical operation regulated by legal and by-legal norms, in which data are collected, processed, evaluated, analysed and disseminated concerning the population, households and dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia within a defined time interval.

For the Court, in the present case, the existence of a statutory authorisation for the Director of the State Statistical Office, by means of a sub-legal act, to regulate matters determined by law, is undisputed.

This authorisation consists in the Director, through a by-legal act prescribed by law (the Methodology), setting out the definitions of the units to be enumerated and the features for which data are to be collected.

However, in the contested parts of the Methodology, it is not a matter of by-legal regulation as envisaged by the Law, but of categorisation, for which the Director of the State Statistical Office has no statutory authorisation, nor does the Law on the Census of the Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia 2021* provide that the categorisation of the population should be elaborated by means of a by-legal act. In fact, this is the subject matter of the Law itself, which in Articles 6 and 7 regulates these issues, and in a different manner.

For this reason, the Court found that the indicated parts of the Methodology are not in conformity with Article 8 Paragraph 1 Indent 3 and Article 51 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, and Articles 6, 7 and 17 Paragraph 2 Indent 1 of the Law on the Census of the Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of North Macedonia 2021*.

IV

On the basis of the foregoing, the Court, by a majority of votes, decided as set out in the operative part of this decision.

V

This decision shall take legal effect from the date of its publication in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia”.

PRESIDENT

of the Constitutional Court

of the Republic of North Macedonia,

Darko Kostadinovski LLD