Our scholars 2020 – Ana Marija Apostoloska

What is your legal background, your current occupation and country of work?
Studying and working in the United Kingdom, a country leaving the EU, on one side, and growing up in Macedonia, a country-candidate, on the other, gave me a unique opportunity to observe the interaction of the national legal systems with the EU law frame on several different levels. Taking the ERA Summer Course on European Criminal Justice proved to be very useful for my professional activities on any of those levels.
Aside from being an LLM student at the University of Liverpool, I am a volunteer at the University’s Law Clinic, working on cases concerning human trafficking and migration status determination.

How do you use European law in your current work?
At the University of Liverpool Law Clinic, where I volunteer, I provide legal assistance to different vulnerable groups in society in cases that mainly concern migration status determination and human trafficking. I also prepare legal documents and case notes and do legal research. Since the UK has not yet officially left the EU, at the Law Clinic we use the EU guidelines and migration policies when dealing with refugee and migration cases. In addition, we are dealing with a status determination of the EU's citizens that wish to remain in the UK. We also refer to the EU anti-trafficking Directive's provision when dealing with trafficking victims and forced labour.
In addition, I am a project intern in the PACE (Partnership Against Child Exploitation) project, where I work along with UN Global Compact and others partners of Fifty Eight on issues related to child labour and modern slavery. Apart of my work there, I do research on the supply chain strategies of the big EU-based corporations and their human rights due diligence. Furthermore, I investigate the possibilities of how the EU countries, the home-states of the big corporations, can contribute to the processes of preventing impunity and securing accountability of perpetrators of forceful work. In this regard, the ERA training allowed me to deepen my knowledge in certain topics valuable for my work, such as EU anti-money-laundering standards, integrated data management and electronic evidence, EU guidelines on coordinating and supporting cross-border investigations, etc.

What was your motivation for attending this particular event?
My main motivation was my strive to contribute to the accession talks between Macedonia and the EU. As a law practitioner, I am well aware of the benefits my country (and its citizens) would enjoy by being a part of the EU and by implementing the EU legal standards. However, I am also aware that the process of synchronization and adoption of the EU’s acquis communautaire is not a smooth process and requires the participation of many well-educated and ambitious young professionals, which will have a deep understanding of the legal norms and traditions of the EU, in order to finalise this process successfully. Taking the ERA Summer Course was a further step on my road to become such a professional.

How did you benefit from the scholarship?
A major personal advantage for me was the opportunity to interact with a vast number of legal practitioners from very diverse backgrounds. The variety of perspectives the ERA organisers succeeded to bring to the seminars allowed each of the important legal issues to be scrutinised with divergent academic, professional, and personal intellectual rigour, which was rewarding for me to develop a proper critical analysis. Such a working environment allowed me to upgrade my academic skills and learn how to put them into practice.
Overall, receiving a scholarship from the Friends of ERA Association and being able to participate in the ERA Summer Course on European Criminal Justice was a wonderful experience both, personally and professionally. Being granted a scholarship gave me a chance to expand my knowledge, improve my practical competences and become a part of the ERA’s dynamic and diverse academic community, which is something I was not able to afford on my own. Therefore, I am truly grateful for this amazing opportunity, and I wholeheartedly look forward to our future collaboration.