Skopje, 21 November 2022 (MIA) – Constitutional Court President Dobrila Kacarska met Monday with EU Ambassador to North Macedonia David Geer, who expressed strong support on behalf of the EU and said he sees the Constitutional Court as an example and a central institution that will lead the reform process of the accession negotiations. “I believe the Constitutional Court will serve as an example to other institutions in advancing the reform process, because you are at the very top of the rule of law. I know that you are doing a lot of work to keep the Court disciplined, transparent and to maintain the high level of work. I know that you are making all these efforts while you are having a shortage of judges and because of that I will use every opportunity to send important messages to the political parties so that the empty posts are filled up sooner,” said Ambassador Geer. Kacarska briefed Geer on the changes being implemented in the Constitutional Court in terms of decision making and practice. She emphasized that the practices of the court have changed substantially from a few years ago, and now the Court is more likely to initiate proceedings regarding unconstitutional or illegal provisions, for cases that were dismissed in the past despite obviously containing unconstitutional elements, the Constitutional Court said in a press release. “Recently we have had numerous examples of initiated proceedings, which means we have expressed doubts about the constitutionality of certain provisions or regulations, and decided to abolish those that are harmful for the citizens. We are engaging in merit-based decision making on citizen requests more often, unlike in the past when the Court immediately dismissed these requests,” said Kacarska. She pointed out that the institution will be functional once they overcome the shortage of judges, i.e., once two more judges are elected. After this, said Kacarska, we will speak more often and louder about the intention to intervene in the Constitution and to introduce a constitutional lawsuit. “We have 51 cases which in the past year failed to receive a majority of votes due to the shortage of judges. The situation has slightly improved with the new constitutional judges, but it is not enough, the others must be elected as well because we have exceptionally important cases for the country such as the case on the Prespa Agreement, the Law on Languages, the Law on the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will be placed on the agenda once the Court is at full capacity,” added Kacarska. ad/ik/