Skopje, 5 July 2023 (MIA) – The European Union is to deploy peer review mission of the Judicial Council, after a series of scandals and turbulences in the past few months, announced EU Ambassador David Geer in an interview with Top Tema on Telma TV on Wednesday.

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

“I mean the turbulences is certainly the word for it. We followed closely with great concern. The Judicial Council has a very special role to play. It supposed to protect and promote independence, professionalism and integrity of the judiciary. That's its job. And it’s clearly not doing that. And what we have seen recently is a real…, you know, 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 its job in the future,” Geer said.

“Of course it is an advisory group, peer review we hope to do it shortly, but I think it shows, indicates how much attention we give to the rule of law and how important we consider the role of the Judicial Council. This needs fixing,” Geer said concerning the developments in the Judicial Council.