Skopje, 6 July 2023 (MIA) – Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski in answer to a journalist’s question at a joint press conference Thursday with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said he supports the peer review mission of the Judicial Council’s work announced by the European Union.

“This is not the first time that we have a peer review mission from the EU, we’ve had some in the past as well. This is a topic that I discussed with EU Ambassador David Geer a year and a half ago, considering that our judicial system is independent of the Government, it is independent of anyone in the world,” said Kovachevski.

Kovachevski highlighted that judges have a life tenure, are elected by the Judicial Council, as an independent, expert body, which has its own integrity and is ultimately assessed by judges from the Judicial Council. “From the very first day I became a Prime Minister,” he added, “I knew that such systems often tend to see themselves differently from the way the public, which they serve, does.”

“Which is why it is important that as part of our cooperation with the EU, they can now organize a process of such a mission in order to review all information related to the work of the Judicial Council and then share them with the European Commission and our political actors who do not have control over the judiciary, and for appropriate reforms to be proposed on the basis of that, which will improve the work of the judicial bodies in the country. So, if you ask me, then yes, I support it,” said Kovachevski.

On Wednesday in an interview for TV Telma, EU Ambassador David Geer said the EU is to deploy a peer review mission of the work of the Judicial Council, after a series of scandals and turbulences in the past few months.

Geer said that this has already been proposed to the Government, and he said he hopes it will be implemented as soon as possible, because, he said, the work of the Judicial Council needs to be fixed.

“I mean, turbulences is certainly the word for it. We followed closely with great concern. The Judicial Council has a very special role to play. It is supposed to protect and promote independence, professionalism and integrity of the judiciary. This is its job. And it’s clearly not doing that. And the recent developments have been very concerning indeed. So much so that we have now proposed to the government that we will deploy here a high-level peer review mission of the Judicial Council to look at ways in which we can address this issue of professionalism, integrity and independence, so that they can really do their job in the future,” Geer said.

Geer clarified that this is an advisory, peer review mission.

Photo: MIA