One of the key battles against the Draft Budget of the Government and the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Parliament is being led by judges and prosecutors. They are demanding much more money for their work, in which they enjoy two percent trust from the public, and they even scolded the Prime Minister for mentioning it to them, as well as absolute independence in spending that money and preserving the two percent trust, which it seems they will ultimately get with the set of laws in this area that will be adopted by the end of the year.
But do they deserve it? That is the first question. The second is, are they really paid less and work more than their European colleagues. Here is what the analysis of the expert body within the Council of Europe – CEPEJ (the body is composed of experts, was formed in 2002, and its goal is to work on analyses to improve the justice system in European countries) says.
As we said, it is not the first time that the solution for better justice has been seen through the prism of money. It was at the request of the judiciary, supported by EU experts, that legal frameworks for the court and prosecutorial budgets were introduced. For the courts, it is a high 0,8 percent of the state budget, for prosecutors, 0,4 percent. This would mean that around 1,2 percent of all public money would be spent for this purpose.
For now, this is just a ceiling that has not yet been reached (and it seems we don't need it, because comparatively speaking, we are not doing badly at all compared to many other judicial systems in Western countries), but the courts and prosecutors do not hesitate to ask for it, and they get angry when they don't get it. Now, for the judicial reforms that Brussels is demanding of us, and which judges and prosecutors are eagerly awaiting, a twice as large pie of public money is being demanded in order to work better.
The court has received 0,66 percent of the budget in recent years, or 44,7 million euros in cash. The largest part of it, 38,3 million, is spent on salaries. According to data from the budget proposal, from 2021 to today, salaries in the judiciary have almost doubled. It is similar in the prosecution, they receive 0,21 percent of public money, or 14,4 million euros. And there, the largest part is spent on salaries, 10,6 million euros.
The basic salaries of prosecutors and judges range from around 86 thousand denars (the same is true of the top doctors at the Clinical Center in Skkopje – we are talking about the basic salary which ranges from around 80-90 thousand denars), to that of the state prosecutor or the supreme judges whose salary according to the legal coefficients is around 122 thousand denars (from 17 to 24 thousand euros per year). This is from 2,3 to 3,2 average salaries in the country.
However, contrary to the Macedonian figures, there are also comparative analyses with an accurate picture of who spends how much and how much works. One such example is the Report on Justice Systems – CEPEJ (https://www.coe.int/en/web/cepej/individual-country-profiles5) of the Council of Europe (and also accepted by the European Commission of the EU) issued last year, and referring to 2022.
According to CEPEJ, in Macedonia each resident spends 24,6 euros on the judiciary, or 0,39 percent of the entire GDP, which goes to the work of the courts and prosecutors' offices. Comparatively, this is even slightly above the EU average of countries that spend from 0,33 to 0.35 percent of GDP for this purpose.
In Macedonia, the number of prosecutors has ranged from 170 to 200 over the past decade. According to reports from the Public Prosecution Service, in 2023 there were 179 prosecutors, and in 2024 169 prosecutors. Compared to the 2021 census, these are 9,7 and 9,2 prosecutors per 100 thousand inhabitants, respectively. The Council of Europe presents a slightly lower figure of 8,5 prosecutors per 100 thousand (https://rm.coe.int/north-macedonia/1680b1df79) (Germany has 7,6 prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants). The European average is 11 to 12 prosecutors per 100 thousand inhabitants, but in general, the average is raised by Eastern European countries, while Western European systems have a lower number.
But let's see how much Macedonian prosecutors worked compared to their European colleagues?
According to CEPEJ, in Macedonia, a prosecutor from 2012 to 2022, on average, worked on 170 to 200 cases per year, which is below or within the European average of about 204 cases per year for a prosecutor. Similar figures are presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office itself in the annual reports it submits to the Parliament. For example, for 2023, it states that an average prosecutor worked on 180 new cases per year (https://jorm.gov.mk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/godishen-izveshta%D1%98-2023-finalna-verzi%D1%98a-2.pdf)
Although the workload of our prosecution is below or within the European average, in all annual reports the Public Prosecutor's Office notes a lack of prosecutors to work efficiently. They say that prosecutors have increased responsibilities and work in accordance with the new Criminal Procedure Law. The prosecution estimates that there should be as many as 261 prosecutors in Macedonia, which would be as many as 14,2 prosecutors per 100.000 inhabitants, which is rare in any country.
The number of judges, according to informal sources, is around 460, which is somewhere around 25 judges per 100 thousand inhabitants. The Council of Europe says that our country has 22,3 judges per 100 thousand inhabitants, and the European average is somewhere around 17 judges, which means that we are above it.
For comparison, per 100,000 inhabitants, here are a few countries that have fewer judges than us:
Macedonia-22,3 judges
Netherlands-15
Belgium-14,6
Italy 12,2
France - 11,3
Spain - 11,8
Albania – 114,
England and Wales only have 3 judges per 100,000 inhabitants.
However, there are also countries with over 40 judges per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the CEPEJ, these inequalities can be explained, at least to some extent, by the diversity of European judicial organisations and legal systems, which are the product of long historical processes. Thus, the low number of professional judges per capita in Great Britain – England and Wales, Great Britain – Northern Ireland and Great Britain – Scotland can be explained by the very high proportion of cases falling within the jurisdiction of magistrates’ courts composed of lay judges. The map shows all the countries that have both part-time professional judges and lay judges in some countries.
BALKAN SYNDROME
What can be noted from the study of the Council of Europe is that there is a kind of Balkan syndrome in the area of justice – the number of judges and prosecutors is far above the European average (except for Albania), although justice seems to have been slowest in this part of Europe. Conversely, the money that these countries allocate for justice as part of GDP or from the state budget is above the European average, but similar to Macedonia. Croatia and Slovenia spend 0,38 of GDP on justice annually, Serbia even 0.54 of its GDP, Albania – 0,29 of GDP.
For example, in Croatia there are 42,4 judges and 16,2 prosecutors per 100 thousand inhabitants. That is almost twice as many judges and a third more prosecutors than the European average. One prosecutor there works only 67 cases per year, which is incomparably less than in other European countries, and almost negligible for a German prosecutor who works over 700 cases. Salaries range from 28 to 57 thousand euros per year. However, compared to the average salary, which our prosecutors and judges have as a basis, Croatian judges earn the same as their Macedonian colleagues – from 2,5 to 3 average salaries.
In Serbia, there are 39,1 judges and 10,4 prosecutors per 100 thousand inhabitants. The number of judges is also twice as high. One prosecutor there works on 114 cases per year, but there were years like 2018 when one prosecutor had to work on up to 500 cases per year. Salaries range from 20 to 49 thousand euros per year. Compared to the average salary in Serbia, these are 2,3 average salaries, which is again the same, and even less than the salaries of Macedonian prosecutors and judges.
Slovenia also has a lot of judges. The figures there are as follows: 40,7 judges and 9,8 prosecutors per 100 thousand inhabitants. Although the number of prosecutors is small, it seems that they work more and more efficiently than their Balkan colleagues – 289 cases per year. The salary of Slovenian judges ranges from 34 thousand euros per year for lower ranks of judges and prosecutors, to 66 thousand for more experienced and higher ranks. Slovenian judges start with 1,1 the average salary, and end their career with 2,7 average Slovenian salaries.
Serbia and Croatia have low trust in the judiciary at just over 20 percent. Of all the Balkan countries, the highest trust in the judiciary exists in Slovenia – 41 percent.
In our country, that trust is 2 percent. And we say that trust in the judiciary is low in Serbia and Croatia, where it is 20 percent.
GERMANY'S JUDICIAL NUMBERS
The most effective spending in terms of output seems to be in Germany. There, in the federal budget there are no separate items for the prosecution and courts, but there is an item that refers to the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary at the federal level. According to the official budgets of Germany, from 1,01 to 1,16 billion euros are allocated for this purpose from 2022 to 2025, or from 0,2 to 0,24 percent of the total federal budget of Germany, which is not different from our country.
But this is not the only money at the disposal of the judiciary. According to CEPEJ, the German judiciary cost an incredible 10,9 billion euros, or a total of 0,3 percent of Germany's GDP, but this does not only include judges and prosecutors, but also all services, and there is no data on whether this also includes the prison system. This percentage has been almost unchanged since 2016 and is quite modest in relation to the workload.
But the absolute numbers are incredibly large, because Germany is also large. Here is an analysis of how many prosecutors and judges work in Germany, on how many cases, and how much they earn.
According to the same study, there are slightly less than 21 thousand judges and 6,503 public prosecutors working in Germany. To put that in perspective, that's 24,7 judges and 7,7 prosecutors per 100 thousand inhabitants (we have 22,3 judges per 100,000 inhabitants and 9 prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants). According to official German statistics ( https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2024/10/PD24_379_2421.html?utm ), these prosecutors complete 5,5 million cases per year, or on average, each prosecutor completes an incredible 846 cases per year (another informal source says that a German prosecutor works on average about 770 cases per year). This is four times more than the European average.
There is no summary data on the courts, but according to CEPEJ and official German statistics, 4 to 5 million cases (civil, criminal, administrative) are concluded in the courts annually. This means that a German judge works on an average of 214 cases per year.
What salary do they do this for? According to CEPEJ, the annual salary in the judiciary in 2022 was 56,3 thousand euros. The average annual salary according to official statistics was 49,2 thousand euros. This means that judicial salaries have a coefficient of 1,08 of the average German salary, which is incomparably less than the 2,5 to three average salaries that our judges and prosecutors receive. True, some judges in Germany at the peak of their judicial careers end up with an annual salary of about 120,000 euros, but that is also about 2,5 times more than the average German salary in general, and our supreme judges also receive 2,5 times more than the state average. Now, as Prime Minister Mickoski has emphasized on several occasions, the number is to receive net salaries of 300,000 denars, which would be more than 7 times the average salary in the country, which does not exist in any European country.
The German justice system, according to the latest OECD report on citizen trust in the public sector, enjoys 58 percent trust. In our country, let's repeat, that trust is only 2 percent. 58 percent in Germany, as opposed to 2 percent in our country.
