JUFREX Focused Committee for legal professionals, held its first online meeting to tackle achieved results and discuss forthcoming activities involving legal professionals. The meeting organised in the framework of the joint EU and Council of Europe Horizontal Facility II programme, gathered key representatives from the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje, the EU Delegation in Skopje and the Academy for judges and public prosecutors and the Bar Association of North Macedonia as key partners under EU / CoE joint programme Horizontal Facility II – JUFREX action.
Head of Operations of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje, Ms Lejla Dervisagic, opened the meeting by pointing out the importance the freedom of expression as one of the basic human rights fundamental for one democratic society. She expressed her support to the action’s team and her commitment to support the upcoming activities and respond to the needs of the beneficiaries and partners.
Programme Manager on Freedom of Media, Information Society and Culture, in the EU Delegation in Skopje, Ms Sanja Frkovic-Gelevska, , briefly reflected on the past cooperation and support of the European Union, and pointed out that this current cooperation action brings benefits to the partners from the flexibility and expertise of the Council of Europe experts, as well as the publications made available through the action that are considered as basis for the future work of all the relevant stakeholders.
The representatives from the Academy for judges and public prosecutors and the Bar Association, Ms Natasha Gaber Damjanovska and Ms Elena Pavlovska Dokovska, respectively, pointed out their satisfaction of the cooperation with the Council of Europe JUFREX team, as well as the action’s adjustment to COVID-19 and the responsiveness to the needs of the partners and all relevant stakeholders.
JUFREX remains to be dedicated to working on improvement of the freedom of expression in North Macedonia, as defined in Article 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights and remains open to answer the needs and requirements of its partners concerning this important issue.
The Action “Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Media in North Macedonia” is part of the joint European Union and the Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” programme.
