For Ivana Petkovska, the European Commission’s latest rule-of-law report this month highlighted very familiar themes for North Macedonia – political pressure on the courts, insufficient funding and the limited impact of legal reforms.
The programme coordinator at the the All for Fair Trials Coalition, a leading judicial monitoring organisation in North Macedonia, said the report reinforces what watchdogs like hers have been saying for years.
“It is not the first time that international reports have concluded that the judiciary is facing political pressure from the executive or legislative branches,” Petkovska says.
As well as political interference, funding and staffing shortages are rendering the justice system dysfunctional, with the public ultimately paying the price through delayed verdicts and growing legal costs, she argues.
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