TIRANA Oct 1 /ATA/ – By I.Vata/ The head of EU Delegation, ambassador Luigi Soreca, attended on Friday the conference “The role of self-governing justice institutions in strengthening the professionalism and performance of the judiciary.”
“The adoption of the justice reform, five years ago, meant the beginning a new “era” for rule of law in Albania. It marked a decisive start for a modern and European Albania. ”
Soreca went on saying that those who conceived this reform knew that this was never going to be an easy reform. It has been a complex endeavour since 2016.
However the last five years have only confirmed that reform was necessary. This is a hard process of fighting against impunity, fighting to regain public trust and most importantly, fighting to re-establish integrity as a core value.
This reform has been essential for Albania to move forward away from its past, towards a European future.
The justice reform has started to bring concrete results, which would have been unthinkable only a few years back.
For instance, criminal proceedings against 23 former magistrates dismissed by the vetting are underway, including 10 former High Court and Constitutional Court judges, while SPAK sent for trial cases of former Constitutional Court Chief Justice and members of the two highest Courts. Assets acquired thanks to corruption have been confiscated and brought back in the realm of legitimacy.
Crucially, we now have fully functional independent justice institutions – the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils, the Justice Inspector, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the SPAK – which are delivering results on a daily basis.
We have now entered a new phase of the justice reform. In this phase, the focus should be on bringing the justice reform to completion. It will require strength, and sometimes pragmatism. As I said in previous occasions, it will require resilience, competence and leadership by the new justice institutions.
The new Parliament and the new Government have important responsibilities in this regard and the EU stands ready to support every effort to this end.
I had a very good first meeting yesterday with Minister Manja and I will soon meet with key Members of Parliament from the majority and opposition.
There are many important files that need to be tackled with urgency. It is essential to engage in ensuring the efficiency of the courts, including by concluding the ongoing work on the judicial map and the new case management system. It is important to look at the fundamental role of the School of Magistrates and at its resources.
It is urgent to make sure that the vetting process can be brought to conclusion: it is crucial that all pending vetting cases are finalised in the shortest possible period of time, whilst preserving the consistency and integrity of the process.
This requires a time-limited extension of the mandate of the members of the Independent Qualification Commission (IQC) and the Public Commissioners. It falls of course within the remit of the Parliament and of the Government to define the precise time limits of such extension, in consultation with the relevant stakeholders.
/sm/
