Baumgartner: Cooperation memo with Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors contributes to independent judiciary
Skopje, 22 September 2022 (MIA) – The memorandum of cooperation with the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors means that France expresses its will to support the Academy, and cooperation is towards affirming the rule of law, as well as achieving an independent judiciary, thus France essentially contributes to the implementation of the Academy’s goal, said French Ambassador to North Macedonia, Cyrille Baumgartner, at the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors on Thursday.
“The cooperation between the Academy and the Embassy is achieved in two forms - on the one hand, cooperation is in the area of acquiring language skills, i.e. knowledge of the French language for the students of the Academy, as well as part of the continuous training of judges and prosecutors, since French is the language of the law,” Baumgartner said.
The second part in the area of cooperation, the Ambassador added, is much more essential, on various topics in the field of civil and criminal law, with the inclusion of several topics that are currently being studied, namely ecocide, i.e. crimes against the environment.
“We’re amid a new context as the country has started the phase of opening EU accession negotiations, and since there’s the new framework, I will say that cooperation between your institution and us is even more essential, because the topics that your institution deals with will be found in the core of the negotiations with the Union,” the French Ambassador said.
Baumgartner stressed that the memorandum will be an additional cornerstone on the common path to the EU, a path that, according to him, will be difficult, but will be overcome.
Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors head Natasha Gaber Damjanovska said the memorandum is a continuation of a cooperation that has been going on since 2007.
“France continuously monitors the work of the Academy. Our Academy has many similarities with the French one, and in a way we can say we’re one of their children who they see achieving growth,” she said.
The head of the Academy said the quality of the cooperation with the Embassy is the personnel exchange and monitoring the work of the professionals.
“Also, addressing issues that are important for the further building of the judicial system, particularly when emphasis was given to administrative issues, but also now when the new cooperation model targets new goals, the protection of the environment and especially the incriminating actions that would result in addressing issues in environmental protection,” said Gaber Damjanovska.
The signing of the memorandum aims to strengthen the French language competences of the students at the Academy’s initial training program, towards consolidating its position within the international Francophone community, in order to enable access and use of official information in French in the domain of their activity.
The obligations arising from the memorandum include promotion of the French language among the Macedonian judiciary through establishment of joint promotional activities.
