Skopje, 26 July 2023 (MIA) - As recently announced by Ambassador David Geer, Head of the Delegation of the European Union, the European Commission is deploying a peer review mission to North Macedonia to focus on the functioning of the Judicial Council.

The team leader Mr. Branko Hrvatin, a former President of the Supreme Court of Croatia, will visit North Macedonia on 27 and 28 July to launch the mission, by identifying the scope of the team’s work, EU Delegation in Skopje said in a press release on Wednesday.

The work will be completed with the support of a team of experts from EU Member States, who will visit North Macedonia in September 2023.

“A team of experts from EU Member States will examine the institutional framework of the Judicial Council, and propose short and medium term measures, including legislative and institutional measures, in order to strengthen the independence, impartiality and credibility of this important management body for the judiciary,” reads the press release.

The peer review mission, earlier announced by the EU Ambassador to North Macedonia, David Geer, who stated in an interview with MIA, will make recommendations that should help to strengthen the Judicial Council do its proper job, which as he said, is protecting the independence, integrity and professionalism of judges.

“What that means is literally sending people of the same standing, so judges, people who have been part of the judicial councils in different EU member states, to come over to look at what the situation is, to review the legislation, see if there are any weaknesses in the legislation on issues like transparency, criminal responsibility, to meet with everyone concerned to see how this is implemented, and then as a result of that, make recommendations which should help to strengthen the council do its proper job, which, as I say, is protecting the independence, integrity and professionalism of judges,” Geer said in an interview with MIA.

“Whether it will succeed does not depend on the European Union, it does not depend on the peer review mission. You can have the best peer review mission in the world coming here, making excellent recommendations. It will depend on political will in the Government, political will among the judges, political will among all of the parties, in order to ensure that they allow the judiciary to do its job,” Geer said.