The official language is Macedonian. In 1998, the Law on the Use of the Macedonian Language was passed. A breakdown of cultural communities with other languages is provided in 2.5 (Table 1).
In this context, it should be mentioned that for almost three years (2006-2009) the Committee for Culture in the Parliament was not working, waiting for the final decision whether the Rules of Procedure would change and if the Parliamentary committees could be conducted in the Albanian language as well. The Parliament representatives from the Albanian political parties did not want to take part in this Committee until the “language question” in the Rules of Procedure was solved. In August 2008, the Parliament passed the new Rules of Procedure and the new Law on the Use of the Albanian language. According to this document, starting from 2009, the Parliamentary committees can be conducted in the Albanian language as well.
In January 2018, after a long and burning public debate, the Parliament passed the new Law on the Use of Languages. The Law stipulates the use of the Albanian language on national and local level. Along with this Law, the Government submitted amendments to the Law on Identity Cards in order to expand the possibilities that members of the communities would have in the process of issuing the ID cards. It proposes that for communities who speak a language other than Macedonian (spoken by at least 20% of citizens and who also use its alphabet), then the ID cards can be printed in the language and alphabet spoken by these communities.
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