Skopje, 15 November 2025 (MIA) – Finance Minister Gordana Dimitrieska Kochoska said analyses are being made at the moment involving the percentage allocated for the judiciary all the while comparisons of how European countries have regulated it are also being made.

“The prime minister said there will be an agreement defining the percentage for the judiciary. I have to note that we are making analyses to see how European countries are doing it,” stated Dimitrieska Kochoska.

She compared the budgets of the judiciary in previous years and the funds they are requesting now.

- I would like to take this opportunity to comment that their [judiciary’s] budget in 2025 was 2.85 billion denars, and then, with the revision, 2.74 billion denars. The budget for next years is the same as the one from last year. I must mention that they requested 5.22 billion denars (about 80 million euros) from 2.7 billion they requested to 5.22 billion denars. As regards the limit that, according to the law on budgets, when preparing the budget circular, each budget user receives from the Ministry of Finance, a limit within which they should plan their expenditures. Their limit was 2.99 billion denars. What is much more important to me, in terms of salaries, salaries for 2023, for example, to make a comparison were 1.99 billion denars, and salaries in 2025 are 2.33 billion denars (38 million euros - 6 million euros more), and the salaries that they requested were 3.75 billion denars (another additional 22 million euros). So, from 2.3, they requested almost 1.4 billion denars amid fiscal consolidation, when once more funds were spent than was allowed. And now we need to bring the state back to normal, which means that next year we need to achieve a three-percent budget deficit,” she stated

On Friday, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the reform laws related to the judiciary, i.e., judges and prosecutors, will be adopted by the end of the year. Since the goal is to provide financial independence to the judiciary, Mickoski said analyses will be carried out to see how this is implemented in other European countries but stressed that accountability will be sought “for every denar spent by the judiciary. “

Mickoski said several models from member states of the European Union are being analyzed over the budget for the judiciary. “We cannot ask for 0.8 percent [of the state budget to be allocated to the judiciary], while in more developed countries this is 0.2, 0.3, or 0.4 percent,” he said.

Photo: MIA