The Agency for the Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information with a conference on the topic "On the situation related to the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Public Information in the Republic of North Macedonia" marked the International Day of Universal Access to Public Information today. character.

The director of the Agency, Plamenka Bojcheva, said that this is a very significant day that contributes to the development of democracy and democratic trends in society, towards which our society should also move. According to her, it is one of the principles of all modern democracies and European standards to which our country strives.

Bojcheva informed that from the aspect of reactive transparency, i.e. acting upon received requests for free access to public information, in the past three years since the existence of the Agency and since the adoption and entry into force of the Law on Free Access to Public Information, it has been observed significant progress.

– The numbers say that. If in the past years since the first law was passed in 2006, there were about 500-600 and even up to 700 complaints, this year only 250 complaints were received, of which 55 were withdrawn, because in the meantime, before the decision was made of the Agency, the claimants received the information and at their request the complaint was withdrawn, she said, adding that so far they have acted by indicating and ordering 195 complaints.

Regarding the question of whether local or state institutions are more transparent, she pointed out that they monitored both local self-government units and 144 state institutions by random selection.

– It depends on the institution, however, I must note that the results are good for both. We have a lot of improvement. I would especially emphasize here the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Finance. Furthermore, the Ministry of Information Society, Govt. Among the proactively transparent municipalities are Valandovo Municipality and Demir Hisar Municipality, she said.

The director pointed out that proactive transparency is an activity that they will devote themselves to in the future.

- We will strive even more to reduce the number of requests for access to information, and to publish the information on the websites of the information holders, said Bojcheva.

Regarding the non-transparent institutions, she pointed out that they "have a problem" with AD "Elektrostopanstvo" (ESM), because in the conditions of the energy crisis there are more demands towards them and unfortunately, instead of acting according to the Agency's decisions, they started administrative disputes.

Deputy Justice Minister Agim Nuhiu, who attended the conference, said he had come to express support.

- We are here to express our support, if there is a need for changes to the Law regarding access to public information, we should do so. We are interested in having a legal framework and the institutional framework in which the attributes of the rule of law will be implemented more, said Nuhiu.

Danče Danilovska-Bajdevska, author of the "Analysis of the application of the Law on free access to public information with recommendations for improving the system for free access to information", indicated that the study was made in order to send messages to the makers of public policies such as to advance the right to free access to information.

- We have had the Law since 2006, it is actively applied, and the findings in a certain part show a repetition of the challenges that arise, both from the side of the applicants and from the side of the officials, that is, the holders of information of a public nature, he said she.

As Danilovska-Bajdevska informed, the recommendations in the Analysis are given in two directions.

- That is, to increase the budget of the second-level authority of the Agency for Free Access significantly, so that it can fulfill its responsibilities in full, that is, to dedicate itself to the education of the holders of information, of the institutions that have information of a public nature. , to be able to implement a large number of campaigns to educate citizens that they have the right to free access to information of a public nature and to focus on educating elected and appointed officials, because the political will of some authorities is shown to depend on free access to public information, Danilovska-Bajdevska said.

The second set of recommendations, she added, are given in the direction of minimal changes to the Law on Free Access to Public Information.

- In general, the assessment in the analysis is that we have an excellent, solid legal framework, which includes even political parties to be the holders of information in the area of ​​their financing, income and expenses. In relation to the legal amendments, the novelty that is required this time is to strengthen the competences of the Agency in order to be able to supervise the legality of the fulfillment of the obligations that the holders have in relation to the decisions made by the Agency for free access to public information, Danilovska-Bajdevska said.