Skopje, 1 November
The professional soldiers are protesting in front of the Government for a second day now. Why wasn’t an agreement signed with the Ministry of Defence and them?
The professional soldiers accepted to sign an agreement with the Ministry of Defence, which runs until the moment they reach 38 years of age. Being aware of this fact, as a minister I could have said that things are as they are and that the legal opportunities are as they are. I felt that it was good to sit down, to talk and to offer a mutually acceptable concept not just from a moral and human aspect, but also because, yet, we have to pay attention to the professional soldiers because a large part of their activities were directed towards improving the rating of the country. From one side we were faced with the requirements from the professional soldiers, which I personally believe are absurd and if we had accepted part of them we would not be compatible with NATO member states. There is no country in the world where professional soldiers work in the army until the age of 64, as professional soldiers. Secondly, they request to receive a pension at the age of 38. We as a country do not believe that we should produce pensioners at the age of 38. On the contrary, we are aware and we see everyday that at the age of 55 and 45 people look for work for existence. They are young people, full of energy, with learned lessons in life.
Why do you believe that the Active Reserve concept is good for the professional soldiers?
We believe that this is an excellent solution for the country and them. This is a model that offers good reserve forces in the country that will be equally prepared as well as the professional soldiers, and from the other side it offers the professional soldiers minimal security because each month they receive a lump-sum from six to seven thousand denars. So, in the period when they will not be professional soldiers anymore, when they find another profession, when they find work somewhere, when they open a business, each month they will receive in parallel compensation and a lump-sum from six to seven thousand denars in the next ten years, until they reach 48 years of age. We believed that this concept is good for the country, for them, and what is most important; it is compatible with the NATO standards. In all member states or Ally partners, the agreements with the professional soldiers are either up to 35 or up to 38 years of age, maybe somewhere up to 40 years of age.
According to this, you cannot make concessions to the benefit of the requests of the professional soldiers?
Absolutely, we cannot make concessions. In order to agree something with one side, willingness is required. In all meetings with the Coordination Body they said either these three things or nothing. We made analysis and saw that it is not possible in the country to produce pensioners from 38 years of age, to continue their working contracts in the Ministry up to 64 years of age. Two aspects, the first is security because a soldier cannot be a soldier at 50 years of age and second because of the combat preparedness and the defence of the country. We as a Government, and I as a minister, if we wish to push this issue, we would have made changes and would have said ok, we can go up to 41 years of age. Firstly, we have not resolved the issue because we have disrupted the security of the soldier, and secondly that issue will be superseded by some new Government or maybe the same Government after three or four years. We chose to find a solution to this problem and we see the resolution in the active reserve concept, which I will repeat, is excellent for the country and for them.
One week ago you were in Afghanistan, where Macedonia has its own professional soldiers in ISAF. Did you speak woth them about the active reserve concept?
I spoke for about two hours with the professional soldiers about what has been done since I am minister in relation to improving their standard. I also opened this topic, which I maybe promoted exactly in Afghanistan among the professional soldiers. I can say that it was excellently accepted from all 150 who were in the hall and that they said that it is a good solution for the professional soldiers.
What if the protest does not stop?
I think that the professional soldiers will realize that this is a reasonable proposal by the Ministry of Defence and that slowly but surely they are realizing that what they are requesting is impossible to get. I don’t know about their mission, whether they think of remaining one, two, three or four days in front of the Government, but I know about my mission which is always predetermined to the professional soldier, to my maximum engagement for finding good solutions.
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