Co-rapporteurs Arslan and O’Reilly Comment on Fact-finding Visit

Following a fact-finding visit to Skopje from 23 to 25 April 2025, Sibel Arslan and Joseph O’Reilly, co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for post-monitoring dialogue with North Macedonia, have welcomed the progress made in fulfilling the obligations and commitments related to the state’s membership of the Council of Europe.

During the visit, they focused on reform of the judiciary and the electoral framework, the fight against corruption, media freedom and minority rights.

“While recognising some progress on reform of the judiciary, we are concerned about numerous allegations of politicisation of the judiciary and widespread corruption throughout the public sector, as well as the lack of effective measures to combat these phenomena. We call on the authorities to step up their efforts to this end, in particular by adopting the necessary legislative amendments, in cooperation with the Council of Europe and other international partners”, the co-rapporteurs are quoted as saying, inter alia, in the press-release.