The Third Steering Committee meeting of the action “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the external oversight mechanism in North Macedonia” took place on 8 July 2020 in a form of an online meeting.

The results achieved during the first half of 2020 were presented, along with the immediate measures undertaken to address the challenges caused by Covid-19 outbreak, which was praised by the Director of the Directorate for Execution of Sanctions and the representative from the Ministry of Health. The participants were informed that all the activities under the mitigation plan have been implemented, thanks to the dedication and commitment of the staff of the beneficiaries. The representative of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in her role as Beneficiary’s co-ordinator of the Horizontal Facility Programme, highlighted the support of this very important action for North Macedonia.

The Steering Committee members adopted the Work Plan for the upcoming six months and engaged in fruitful discussion on the upcoming activities. Concrete steps and measures were agreed among all the SC members following the discussion on the challenges with regards to the operationality of the External Oversight Mechanism over the police. The National Co-ordinator for countering violent extremism commended the achievements of the action regarding disengagement of violent offenders and foreign fighters.

The action “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the external oversight mechanism in North Macedonia” is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, implemented by the Council of Europe.