Proper implementation of reforms and rule of law as condition for faster EU membership are some of the points from today’s Fourth Regional Expert meeting on Cluster 1 “Fundamental values” within the project “Let Justice Rule the Region”, which marks the completion of the annual activities of the National Convention for European Union in the Republic of North Macedonia (NCEU-MK), supported by the EU Delegation and SlovakAid and the Regional Initiative “”Let Justice Rule the Region” supported by the Kingdom of Netherlands (MATRA). Project partners are: European Convent in Serbia, European movement in Albania and the European movement in the Republic of North Macedonia.
The president of the European movement in the Republic of North Macedonia and the national coordinator of the National Convention for European Union in the Republic of North Macedonia (NCEU-MK), Mileva Gurovska spoke about the meaning of the national convents within the project “”Let Justice Rule the Region”.
„I believe that it is time to find the true path in eurointegration process which is the rule of law. We are here to define the paths how to get there. Our aim is EU membership. After 20 years we can not ask ourselves why we decided to go on this path, but we need to get there. Walking on this road needs to end. Bilateral questions should not hold the countries in their progress. We should be enabled to seriously implement reforms so that we accomplish this goal“, Gurovska said in her speech.
Andrej lepavcov, the director of the Directorate for European Union in the Ministry for foreign affairs and foreign trade emphasized that the rule of law as mutual value is inevitable in the eurointegration process. According to Lepavcov, the perception of the most citizens is that the reforms that have been undertaken until now are going in rong direction.
Bojana Selakovic, national coordinator of the National Convention for European Union in Serbia said:
„When we speak about the enlargement process we should be aware what is motivation for joining EU to any of the countries in this region, what is motivation to us, the citizens, what is to the institutions and what is for EU. That is the reason to the problem. There isn’t some kind of consensus why we need EU and that story at the end comes to economic reasons“.
Nirvana Deliu, project coordinator of the National Convention for European Union in Albania spoke about the implementation of EU criteria.
„There are a lot of reforms that are asked from us. We might have good laws, but what about the implementation? Do the countries have capacity to implement all the legislative. Here I believe that the civil society can play the role“, Deliu explained.
Frédéric DUBOST, Liaison Magistrate in the Western Balkans spoke about the independence, integrity and transparency in judiciary. According to her, the politicians should respect the independence of judiciary. The work of the prosecutors, as Dubost said, should be transparent towards the media because with transparency public trust in judiciary is raised.
Marko Nikolic from National Convention for European Union in Serbia focused on the proposed changes for selection of judges in Serbia for which he said they are threat to judiciary. Nikolic emphasized big personnel crisis in Serbia in regards to lack of judges and prosecutors, as well as decreased number of trainees, for which he said that the main reason is poor financial condition.
Elda ZOTAJ, lecturer and expert of European Studies at the Aleksander Moisiu University of Durres, Albania talked about the process of reforms in judiciary which have been implemented in the past period, for which she estimated that were implemented for quite some time and the results came now. In this process, as Zotaj mentioned, the role of the civil sector was of key essence, which, in cooperation with international stakeholders, have contributed in mobilization in regards to reforms.
Elena GEORGIVSKA from the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association highlighted that there is a trend of increasing the participation of civil organizations in creating laws and by-law solutions.
„It is significant that we should look on the civil sector as to and equal partner in the processes. We should not allow the civil sector to be decoration in these processes“, Georgievska said.
Today’s event is a platform for uniting the regional civil initiatives focused on rule of law and other key questions from Cluster 1–Fundamentals.
The aim of the event is to initiate structured expert’s dialogue among stakeholders (institutions, civil sector, business community, academic community and others) through ehchange of experiences and knowledge for vital questions from Cluster 1–Fundamentals.
This meeting followed after the previous three expert meetings held in each of the mentioned states. In this context, the project highlights topics from the Reform agenda within the EU Growth Plan for Western Balkans and the European rule of law mechanism.
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