Siljanovska Davkova: If we want change, the Constitutional Court must be released and treated independently towards other authorities
In the last 34 years, we have missed the Constitutional Court to grow into the fourth government, in a concealer of relations between the three authorities and the protector of citizens’ freedoms and rights. If we want change, this institution must be released and reached for its jurisdiction, really build constitutional democracy and treat other authorities independently, says President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova.
After the opening of the roundtable on « Do we need a law for the Constitutional Court? », Today in the Constitutional Court, Siljanovska Davkova said that the analysis and comparative examples from Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Croatia are inspiring, but that according to her, the solution must be more bolder.
« The constitutional matter can be expanded, but we always come up with some proposals for constitutional changes, and we go out with others because our political markets are strange and the changes we accept besides the necessary are such that they do not make us even more specific and original, but in democracy, we should be European standard, » said Siljanovska, will work on a new constitution.
According to Siljnovska Davkova, this composition of the court has made a lot of bold steps and that is a good sign, stressing that this debate is not happening right now.
-Although I am a constitutional law professor, if you ask to list from 1991 to today some top constitutional judges, who have left a stamp of constitutional democracy, will list 5-6. I remember the first composition of the Constitutional Court, the last, and some constitutional judges, most often through the Venice Commission, but for many others not. So, not prominent lawyers were not prominent, but political or party activists were prominent and they received a place in the Constitutional Court – said Davkova.
Siljanovska Davkova reminded her statement that the Constitutional Court reminds her of an anchored ship in Vardar, because everyone in the world is afraid of hyperactive constitutional courts, and we pray to be active.
– The reasons that the President of the Constitutional Court have listed, because we have so few provisions on the constitutional judiciary in the Constitution and why the Law on Constitutional Court is not envisaged, its dilemmas stand, but I have another reason. I think that is on the one hand because of the notion or not the necessary referrals of the works of the constitution in the constitutional judiciary, and the second probably this situation has enabled the political authorities, starting from the first parliamentary composition to the last, influence through unpaid lawyers – said Siljanovska.
President Siljanovska Davkova, in the opening speech at the roundtable, had earlier said that according to her, the Constitutional Court had to be reformed for a long time and that it was good that the debate on this was happening today, precisely in the home of the most frequent institution.
– If you are asking me, I am for the broader jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court. Wider jurisdiction cannot be regulated by adopting a law. Even if we pass a Law on Constitutional Court we need to intervene in the Constitution, because we can read it as we want Article 113, but it is clear that the act on the Constitutional Court does not mean a law, because the Constitutional Court cannot pass the law, the laws passed by parliament. After all, by 2024 we lived with Rules of Procedure, it is for the Constitutional Court – said Siljanovska Davkova.
The refrum, said Siljanovska Davkova, should cover the following things: first, expand the list of protection of freedoms and rights. Second, let’s specify that from the signing of international agreements to ratification, the Constitutional Court could be entitled to intervention and jurisdiction. Third, to expand the jurisdiction and the Constitutional Court to have the final word of referendums and elections. Fourth, I would like to remove the Authentic Interpretation of the Laws of the Assembly, as it is a remnant of communism. And, we must specify the status of « prominent lawyer ».
The Constitutional Court holds a roundtable on « Do we need a law for the Constitutional Court? » which aims to open a debate on the need to adopt a special law that would regulate the work of the Constitutional Court, through dialogue between representatives of institutions, the legal profession and the civil sector. President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, as well as Michalis Rokas, European Union Ambassador Petra Drexler, German Ambassador and Angela P. Ageller, US Ambassador.
