Our scholars 2019 – Kristina Radeska

What is your legal background, your current occupation and country of work?
I work as a public prosecutor in the Primary Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kumanovo. In my country, becoming a member state of the EU has been a crucial impetus for legislative change.
In 2013, a series of reforms were introduced to comply with the Union’s requirements, including a complete overhaul of criminal procedure. Investigative proceedings were passed entirely from the hands of the investigative judges to the hands of public prosecutors. My office has been working hard to avoid any conflicts with EU and ECHR law, and I have greatly appreciated the chance to attend lectures clarifying these issues.

How do you use European law in your current work?
One of the main determinations of our country is the entry into the European Union and precisely because of this, it is of utmost importance to fully act upon the recommendations and full implementation of the European legislation. That is why the need to attend this type of courses and seminars that fully approximates the European legislation to us practitioners will help us to fully apply it in our day-to-day activities. E.g. our country is more often found with certain cases before the European Court of Human Rights, such as the conduct in the criminal procedure. Therefore, experience from other countries that are in a similar position and, on the one hand, the experience of the member states of the European Union is invaluable in this direction.

What was your motivation for attending this particular event?
In the last years our country has made a big step forward in the approximation to the European standards and EU recommendations for joining the European Union, including the complete change of the criminal procedure, which resulted in the adoption of a new law on criminal procedure with which the investigation in its entirety passed from the hands of the investigative judges to the hands of public prosecutors. The Public Prosecutor's Office faced a series of problems with this step, including actions that would not be contrary to the principles of the EU and European Court of Human Rights, and hence any lecture that in any way brings these experiences closer is of great help to me as a prosecutor acting under the new Code of Criminal Procedure. At the same time, when the entire investigation passed into the hands of the prosecution, it is of utmost importance that each prosecutor has knowledge of all the tools that exist, and with which he can easily collect evidence that is beyond the borders of the state or more precisely it is of paramount importance to identify all the opportunities offered both within the cross-border cooperation of the countries themselves, and the cooperation through Eurojust, EJN, Europol, EPPO etc. Luckily, I have the consent of the immediate supervisor to apply for a scholarship because the presence is of paramount importance, and our institution is not able to finance such a thing, nor do I as an individual.

How did you benefit from the scholarship?
The Summer Course was extremely useful in introducing tools for cross-border evidence collection and cooperation, including but not limited to cooperation through institutions like Eurojust, EJN, Europol and EPPO. Therefore, the gained knowledge will be of great importance in my everyday further action, and at the same time I will be able to convey all the benefits from the same to my colleagues with whom I work, and who do not speak English sufficiently so that they can attend such a course.
Overall, I would like to say a huge thank you to ERA for the wonderful training but also for the social experience. I hope to attend more ERA trainings in the future.