Clingendael lecture by Alexander Strelkov
On 3 July, lecturer Alexander Strelkov gave a lecture on the rule of law and EU accession to a group of diplomats from the Balkan region.
The group included junior members of the diplomatic service from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The event was part of a long-standing CDSEE programme at Clingendael that aims to support capacity-building of ministries of foreign affairs in South-Eastern Europe.
Rule of law
The interactive lecture touched upon the challenges of rule of law promotion in the region, for example political pressure on judges as well as very high backlog of cases, issues that are prevalent across the region.
Solutions
Potential solutions were also discussed, for example promotion of judicial councils and its potential side-effects, greater involvement of civil society in accession talks, provision of guarantees for freedom of speech, and obtaining reliable statistical data on the functioning of Balkan judicial systems. The subsequent discussion provided a large number of interesting insights for both policy-makers and members of academia.