Horizontal Facility II - News

Supporting the Ministry of Justice in North Macedonia in the process of granting awards on Free Legal Aid to civil society organizations and Legal Clinics

The Law on Free Legal Aid (LFLA) adopted in 2019 has set up a legal ground for providing financial support to authorized associations and legal clinics. The aim of this novelty is to ensure sustainable funds provided by the Ministry of Justice for the free legal aid providers as well as to support a more holistic approach concerning the involvement of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) in advancing Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia.

To address the existing challenges that hamper the successful completion of this procedure, the European Union and Council of Europe joint programme Horizontal Facility II, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Justice in North Macedonia, on 18 January 2022 organised a training aimed at enhancing the knowledge, skills and professionalism of the Ministry of Justice staff in the process of conducting the procedure for granting awards to CSOs and Legal Clinics authorized in free legal aid services.

Furthermore, “Guidelines on the procedure for providing financial support to the authorized associations and legal clinics for providing primary legal aid” have been developed by the Council of Europe consultants, intended for use by the Department for Free Legal Aid within the Ministry of Justice when announcing and conducting procedure on public call for financial support to authorized associations and legal clinics. The guidelines explain and elaborate the legal provisions, principles and criteria, set in the LFLA and offer practical and easy-to-follow instructions and tools regarding the internal procedure for providing financial support by the Ministry of Justice.

The training and the prepared guidelines will be of utmost importance and help to the staff of the Ministry of Justice responsible for conducting the procedure for awarding grants to the CSOs and Legal Clinics.

This activity is organised by the action “Supporting enhanced access to higher quality Free Legal Aid services in North Macedonia” which is part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.