Second Annual Conference of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum, established in Sofia in October 2023

On 24 October 2024 the second annual edition of the Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum took place in Pristina hosted by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo. On this occasion an international conference was held on the topic “Evolutions in Contemporary Constitutional Justice: The Example of the Balkan Region”.

The President of the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, Ms. Pavlina Panova, addressed the guests during the opening of the conference and later presented a paper on “The Protection of the Separation and the Balance of Powers in the Jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria”.

The Forum was attended by representatives of seven constitutional jurisdictions from the Balkan region – Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Türkiye (as members of the Forum) as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (as observer members).

On 25 October, an operational meeting was held between the representatives of the members and observers of the Balkan Forum. The hosts of the next two annual meetings were announced (in 2025 – the Constitutional Court of Türkiye, in 2026 – the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia). Future steps for the development of the Forum were discussed at the meeting. The Bulgarian Constitutional Court where the Secretariat of the Forum is based, took the initiative in drafting the Statutes of the Balkan Forum.

On 23 October, the delegation of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court composed of President Pavlina Panova, Justice Philip Dimitrov, the Secretary General Valentin Georgiev and Ms Desislava Kemalova, Senior Legal Expert, was received at the Constitutional Court of Kosovo for a bilateral meeting. Future initiatives for bilateral cooperation between the two Courts as well as for the further advancement of the Balkan Forum were among the main discussion points.

The Balkan Constitutional Courts Forum was established in Sofia on 27 October 2023 at the initiative of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria.