Prosecutors demand urgent Constitutional Court ruling on salary cuts; warn of staff exodus

The Council of Public Prosecutors, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Association of Public Prosecutors have asked the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia to urgently examine challenges to recent legal changes that, for the third time, reduced the coefficients used to calculate prosecutors' salaries.

The prosecutor bodies say the Court has failed to act on initiatives submitted more than eight months ago and warned that the delay threatens the independence of the prosecution and risks a mass outflow of staff.

"By failing to act, the Constitutional Court not only calls into question the independence of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the rule of law, but also creates a serious disparity between the judicial and prosecutorial functions, which runs counter to European and international standards," the prosecutors said in a statement.

Court's own doubts and the petitioners' demands

The prosecutors recall that the Constitutional Court itself opened proceedings to assess the constitutionality of the amendments and has already signalled concern that the reductions may infringe the constitutionally guaranteed independence and autonomy of the prosecutorial service.

"The Court expressed doubt that, by reducing the coefficients for calculating the salaries of public prosecutors and members of the Council of Public Prosecutors, the legislator has intruded into the constitutionally guaranteed independence and autonomy of the Public Prosecutor's Office," the Court's decision stated.

The prosecutor community says any further postponement of a ruling is unjustified, noting that salaries for prosecutors in North Macedonia remain the lowest in the region, and that chronic staff shortages, insufficient budget funding and poor working conditions have created an unsustainable situation.

"Positions that dispute these principles are a dangerous precedent, which not only contradict European standards for the rule of law but also threaten to cause a serious outflow of prosecutorial staff and thereby endanger the normal performance of the prosecutorial function," the prosecutors warned, adding that these problems "create an absolutely unsustainable situation which threatens to endanger the functioning of the prosecution and directly affect the protection of citizens' rights."

They also expect the situation to be noted in the forthcoming European Commission report on North Macedonia as a significant deterioration in prosecutorial independence, and again urged the Constitutional Court to take up the pending initiatives and remedy what they describe as an injustice inflicted on one of the pillars of the rule of law.

Photo: press material from the event