EUKOJUST is supporting the Legal Office of the Office of the Prime Minister (LO-OPM) and relevant stakeholders to take a more structured approach on legal approximation, i.e. following the National Program for the Implementation of the SAA, to assess conformity of national law with the EU acquis comprehensively regarding the areas identified in that Program.
This constitutes a new approach and requires guidance and capacity building. This guidance and methodology are set out in the Approximation Manual which was updated by EUKOJUST and where the introduction of the pre-screening thematic approach to Legal Approximation with the EU Acquis is central.
Given the importance of the Manual for the improvement of the legal and institutional framework with regard to EU Approximation, EUKOJUST in cooperation with the LO-OPM organized a two-day workshop on 29 and 30 of March 2022 in Peja where the first draft of the updated Manual elaborated by EUKOJUST was discussed and agreed upon with relevant stakeholders, such as LO-OPM, MoJ and Assembly.
During the Workshop EUKOJUST experts explained the difference between the thematic and ad hoc approach, use of terminology consistently by differentiating between the overarching concept of approximation, including the harmonization of national law with directly applicable EU legal act on one hand and transposition of directive on the other hand, the different approximation requirements for directly applicable EU legal acts and directives, suggests a different analytical focus for Tables of Concordance (ToCs) for directives and for directly applicable EU acts, suggests standards for citations of EU law, provided an in-depth guidance for the elaboration of ToCs and provided updates (new case law, missing differentiation, ..). It was evident that the representatives of the beneficiaries are well aware of the process and the challenges in legal approximation. The difference between the thematic and the ad hoc approach were understood and the benefits of the thematic approach, though more work intensive, were acknowledged. Also, the advantages of taking a different in approach for the harmonisation of directly applicable EU law and directives which need to be transposed was recognized. The participants however stressed, that comprehensive training will be needed to introduce these novelties to the legal drafters in all line ministries and administrative bodies involved in legal approximation.
