The name hits the gas, reforms hit the brakes


The European Union will begin screening in Macedonia by the end of the month, and NATO has also announced that in the same period the accession talks for membership with the Alliance will start. On the other hand, the reforms that are being announced are postponed one by one, from those in education, those for the control of the security system, the progressive tax, those concerning the anti-corruption commission etc.
It is precisely the reforms in the judiciary, ensuring greater accountability and adequate oversight of the intelligence and security services, checking the internal procedures for dispatching armed forces abroad is part of the instructions that the Government has recently received from NATO, which should be fulfilled over a time period of 18 months.
The implementation of the urgent reform priorities for a part of the expert public is slow. It starts, as they say, then it stops, because the ruling headquarters, obviously, all of its capacities are currently directed to the agreement with Greece. Representatives of the government, however, assure that substantial changes are made, not just a pro forma to meet certain requirements and to show that something has been done.
The Judicial Reform Council is currently working to improve the legal framework for the courts, and as Justice Minister Renata Deskoska said, one of the key challenges is how to secure the future of the SPO as an integrated part of the BPPO or as a separate prosecution with a lasting term.
Experts from the United States and the EU have been present for a certain period in the country and intensively, with their experiences and thoughts, help institutions in finalizing legal solutions. “The Law on the Judicial Council, as well as the Law on Courts, have undergone some changes that will be in accordance with the opinion of the Venice Commission. Elements are currently focused on the theoretical part. From a practical point of view, unfortunately, the assessment was made with certain old legal solutions. However, I think that we are stepping forward,” said Judge Margarita Caca Nikolovska, who represented the country in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for two terms.
In essence, we have no problem with the legal solutions for a fair procedure, says Nikolovska, but the problems arise with the implementation of a certain law. “There is no perfect law, but there are solutions as a basis for efficiency, transparency and argumentation. With the determined strengthening of the criteria for assesing judges, I believe that an atmosphere of fair trial will be created,” says Nikolovska.

A series of laws, including that of the Anti-Corruption Commission, which practically does not exist in the period when corruption scandals are multiplied, are in the preparatory phase. They are still ironed, checked in order, as the competent authorities say, to implement the remarks of the Reinhard Priebe expert group, as well as the Venice Commission, while deadlines expire.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, answering a journalist question at a press conference in the government, said that the solutions that will arise from the work of the reform council will be voted in October.
“It is very important to quickly adopt harmonized and adapted legal solutions. I expect that those solutions will be voted in October, but the most important is the implementation. It depends on every individual in the judiciary, starting with judges, prosecutors, professional associates, and transparency and independence are the next step we expect from every judge and prosecutor,” Zaev said, stressing that confidence will increase if no judge depends on a politician, as has happened in the past. According to him, in the second phase of the reforms, there will be accountability and monitoring of all stakeholders in the country, where every court verdict is publicly announced, and citizens can give direct comments on the work.
Apart from reforms in the judiciary in the battle against time, the reforms in the security services, in the Ministry of Interior, especially the UBK, the establishment of the Operational-Technical Agency and putting the wiretapping in a strict legal framework. Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski has recently called the lump sum that there has been a standstill in the reforms of the UBK and other security departments. He says that the reforms are ongoing and that with the proposal Zoran Angelovski to be the director of OTA, the reforms were seen in action. However, some experts believe that the reforms are in a halt, and as has been announced recently, confirmation of this is the last case when an ASC (Administration for Security and Counterintelligence) employee in Kumanovo was found to have a fake diploma.
(NK)