The EU Twinning project team after the Kick-off-Meeting (from left to right): Plamenka Bojceva (Project Leader North Macedonia), Tanja Kovachev (Component Leader 2), Matina Schloegel (Project Leader Germany), Katharina Tegeder (IRZ Project Coordinator) Petar Gajdov (Component Leader 1), Tim Fellmann (German Component Leader 1) and Gereon Müller-Chorus (Project Manager IRZ) North Macedonia
IRZ has been awarded the contract for the EU Twinning Light Project ‘Supporting free access to information’. Through its Twinning Projects, the European Union supports partnerships between authorities in EU member states and their partner states to build public structures in line with European values and standards.
As part of this new project, IRZ will support its North Macedonian partners in the coming months in bringing the Law on Free Access to Public Information (LFAPI) into line with EU regulations and best practices. In addition, the institutional capacities of the staff of the Agency for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information (ASPI) and selected other pilot institutions will be strengthened. In up to 16 missions on site and during two study trips to EU countries, German and European experts will work closely with their Macedonian colleagues to bring freedom of information in North Macedonia into line with European requirements and standards.
To kick off the project, the project partners met with the EU delegation in Skopje for the first time on 19 and 20 May 2025 to discuss the concrete implementation of the project over the next ten months. Under the leadership of Dr Martina Schlögel from the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) and Mr Tim Fellmann from the Thuringian State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (TLfDI), they specified the work plan with the ASPI.
During this two-day start-up mission, the responsible project and component managers from both sides – also in exchange with the EU delegation – were able to clearly define priorities, determine concrete steps and begin direct cooperation.
Are you also interested in Twinning Projects, in which IRZ has been involved as a so-called ‘mandated body’ in more than 90 projects since 1998? Here you will find further information about their partnership approach to building public structures in line with EU administrative practice.
The Twinning Project is the responsibility of Ms Tegeder, who manages and coordinates the EU Twinning and Action Grants project area.
The participants of workshop in Belgrade Western Balkans region
At the end of 2024, German-speaking (junior) lawyers and language mediators from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, who had already taken part in various internships, language courses and courses on German law organised by the IRZ, discussed current topics in German law and the participating countries at the Institute for Comparative Law in Belgrade.
The aim of the workshop, which was conducted entirely in German, was not only to strengthen the legal knowledge of the alumni, but also to improve their ability to exchange ideas in German on legal issues and to network with each other.
The participants themselves also gave presentations on topics such as the legal requirements for the EU accession sought by the partner states in the Western Balkans and comparative legal presentations on German law and the law of the region. Other priorities were constitutional law and legal training for trainee lawyers in Germany on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law.
The extensive programme of events was interspersed with entertaining elements such as a quiz on German law and the presentation of a birthday cake for the Basic Law, which was accepted by the Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Serbia, Mr Carsten Meyer-Wiefhausen.
Former President of the Regional Court, Winfried Schubert, during his presentation. North Macedonia
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia celebrated its 60th anniversary on 15 March 2024 with an OSCE-supported international conference on ‘Freedom of expression and the press’. Due to the good and long-standing cooperation with IRZ, our organisation was involved in the programme with two expert presentations.
The President of the Constitutional Court, Dobrila Kacarska, opened the conference, which was followed by words of welcome from high-ranking guests, such as the President of the Republic, Stevo Pendarovski, the Speaker of Parliament, Jovan Mitreski, the President of the Government, Talat Xhafri, the Minister of Justice, Krenar Loga, the OSCE Head of Mission, Kilian Wahl, the EU delegation, Ben Nupau, and the ambassadors of the USA, Angela Price, and Germany, Petra Drexler.
This was followed by two panels moderated by the former judge at the ECHR, Margarita Tsatsa-Nikolovska. In this context, the international speakers presented the case law of the various national constitutional courts and the European Court of Human Rights on the topic of ‘freedom of expression and freedom of the press’.
IRZ expert Winfried Schubert, former President of the Constitutional Court of Saxony-Anhalt, presented future constitutional challenges in the area of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in the areas of ‘hate speech’, ‘fake news’ and ‘artificial intelligence’. Mladen Cadikovski, President of the Association of Journalists of North Macedonia (AJM), presented the media's perspective. In addition, IRZ head of section, lawyer Dr Stefan Pürner, responsible for North Macedonia, presented the Lüth ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in Macedonian, emphasising that this decision also made many critical contributions to the social debate possible in the first place.
