North Macedonia: Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid Services

Project Duration

36 months, 24 May 2019 – 23 May 2022

Budget

Euro 800 000

Key issues to be addressed

There is a need to support, through targeted capacity building, the main stakeholders to readily and efficiently implement the new law, while also enabling them to prevent and address future shortcomings through improved coordination and cooperation.
Regional Offices of the Ministry of Justice appear to be understaffed and existing staff suffers from limited resources and low levels of performance and motivation.
FLA literacy of both legal professionals and potential beneficiaries needs to be enhanced to support broader accessibility, with a special focus on women, children, and vulnerable groups

project components

The Action "Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia" aims at enhancing the efficiency, quality, accessibility, and awareness of free legal aid in North Macedonia. More concretely the Action will focus on the:

harmonization of provisions, policies and practices related to free legal aid in North Macedonia;
capacity building for the main actors in the field (Ministry of Justice, Bar Association and CSOs) including more structured and continuous coordination between the main stakeholders;
awareness raising for the public and related institutional actors in the country to support increased access to free legal aid.

This Action is part of the Council of Europe/European Union "Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey II"

Overall Objective

The Action aims at supporting the main actors in enhancing the efficiency, quality, scope, accessibility, and awareness of free legal aid provision in the country and addressing identified shortcomings. It builds upon the results achieved in the implementation of the previous Action on this issue (HF-35“Supporting Free Legal Aid Reforms in ‘the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”) and supports effective implementation of the new Law on free legal aid, adopted in 2019.

Expected Results

The legal and policy framework related to the provision of Free Legal Aid will be harmonised in line with Council of Europe standards.

Capacities of Free Legal Aid providers to deliver quality legal aid are strengthened.
Access to Free Legal Aid by the population will be enhanced and the efficiency of the Free Legal Aid in North Macedonia will be strengthened.

The project continues the work initiated under the phase one of the Project.

target groups

Ministry of Justice, Bar Association, CSOs and Legal Clinics authorized to provide FLA

Judiciary, Centres for Social Welfare

End Beneficiaries

Free Legal Aid applicants, potential applicants and general population.

Project team

Rita Marascalchi, Project Co-ordinator (Strasbourg)

Irena Cuculovska Jakimovska, Project Manager (Skopje)

Anamarija Mitrovska, Project Assistant (Skopje)

North Macedonian website

Access to North Macedonian website.

Useful links

Project News

Back 2nd meeting: National Co-ordination Body for implementation of the Law on Free Legal Aid

North Macedonia (Horizontal Facility) Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services

The Second Meeting of the National Co-ordination Body for implementation of the Law on Free Legal Aid (NCB) was held in Skopje on 10 March 2020 within the scope of the Action on “Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia”. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Bar Association, civil society organisations (CSOs), Legal Clinics and other institutions involved in the provision of free legal aid, including the Centre for Social Affairs – Skopje, the Ombudsman’s office, the Chamber of Notaries, the Ministry of Interior, the State Employment Agency, CSO’s networks etc., whose representatives also participated in the meeting.

The participants discussed and adopted the Rules of Procedure of the NCB. The Rules of Procedure regulate the internal set up, the manner of work, the composition and the chairing of the NCB.

Information about the achievements and challenges identified in the implementation of the Law on Free Legal Aid were shared among the participants. Discussions have developed about the legal needs of the citizens and tools for increased promotion of the Law on Free Legal Aid.

The quarterly meetings of this body will ensure better access to justice for citizens through better institutional co-ordination.

The Action on “Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia” is part of the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II”, a joint EU/CoE programme implemented by the Council of Europe.

Skopje, North Macedonia 10 March 2020