North Macedonia became a member State of the Council of Europe in 1995 and has been actively participating in various initiatives, engaging notably in intergovernmental co-operation and assistance programmes in the fields of legal reform and human rights. The Council of Europe is currently represented in North Macedonia by the Programme Office in Skopje, which was established in 2012 to support project implementation and to ensure co-ordination with both national and international partners present in the field.

Six actions are currently being implemented in North Macedonia as part of the third phase of the European Union/Council of Europe Joint Programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”, which assists Beneficiaries in addressing the Council of Europe’s monitoring and advisory bodies’ recommendations, while complying with relevant European Union accession priorities. These actions contribute to providing access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services, enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system, fighting economic crime, combating hatred and intolerance and strengthening anti-trafficking policies. Support is also provided to bolster freedom of expression and freedom of the media through better application of European standards, access to information and data protection. 

North Macedonia also plays an active role in the regional actions of the Horizontal Facility, focusing on areas such as the fight against economic crime, the promotion of diversity and equality and the promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of the media. Additional regional actions focus on enhancing regional co-operation in managing violent extremism in prisons, strengthening women’s access to justice, as well as evaluating results of judicial reforms efforts through the Council of Europe flagship initiative “Dashboard – Western Balkans II” based on the CEPEJ methodology.

The  Council of Europe  furthermore supports North Macedonia in promoting democracy and human rights in and through education in the framework of the “Quality education for all” project funded by Germany The latter facilitates the capacity-building of policy makers to foster implementation of the national Education Strategy. It also assists teachers in developing new professional competencies, thereby contributing to the development of democratic culture competences among learners.

North Macedonia also benefits from two European Union/Council of Europe regional Joint Programmes implemented in South-East Europe. The regional Joint Programme CyberSEE  strengthens the rule of law, security and regional co-operation in South-East-Europe and Türkiye through a more effective response to the challenges of cybercrime and electronic evidence. Furthermore, support to the implementation of Roma inclusion policies enhancing access to basic socio-economic rights is further reinforced and streamlined within the Joint Programme on “Roma integration“.

Lastly, North Macedonia benefits from regional projects funded by voluntary contributions. The Human Rights Trust Fund financially supports the implementation of two regional projects. The project “HELP in the Western Balkans” aims to enhance the capacities and skills of legal professionals for the effective application of European standards in human rights. The project “Human Rights and Sustainable Environment in South-East Europe” intends to increase the understanding of the relationship between the protection of human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the environment among the judiciary and legal professionals to strengthen environmental protection at the domestic level. Thanks to Germany’s financial contribution, the Council of Europe also promotes deliberative democracy in the region as an innovative form of citizen participation in local decision-making.

Through the implementation of the aforementioned programmes and actions, the Council of Europe actively contributes to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 3 (target 8), SDG 4 (target 1, 5 and 7), SDG 5 (targets 1, 2 and c), SDG 8 (target 7), SDG 10 (targets 2 and 3), SDG 15 (target 7) and SDG 16 (targets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, a and b).