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
Project News

Back Towards efficient processing of Free Legal Aid applications: Training of Representatives of the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Justice

North Macedonia (Horizontal Facility) Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services
Towards efficient processing of Free Legal Aid applications: Training of Representatives of the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Justice

Representatives of the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of North Macedonia were trained on the practical daily use of the tool and step-by-step guidelines for efficient processing of FLA applications by Regional Offices’ (ROs) officials. The training was part of the event on “Access to Justice” organised jointly by the Foundation Open Society Macedonia and the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje on 16-18 December 2019 in Strumica.

The two CoE’s consultants Mr. John Eames and Mr. Goce Kocevski presented the tool and step-by-step guidelines for efficient processing of FLA applications by Regional Offices’ (ROs) officials, produced under the previous phase of the project (Action HF 35). The presentation of the tool by the consultants, the discussions with the participants and the practical exercises at the event contributed to further dissemination and consistent use of the tool.

Under the auspices of this event, 27 representatives of 21 Regional Offices of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), one representative of the central MoJ-Legal Aid Department and one representative of the Legal Clinic of the Law Faculty were trained on the practical daily use of the tool and step-by-step guidelines for efficient processing of FLA applications.

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

Strumica, North Macedonia 16-18 December 2019
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