The Chairwoman of the Law Commission, Klotilda Bushka, in her remarks, said that this initiative is based on assessments of OPDAT, an opinion from the Venice Commission which has confirmed that this initiative is in line with the European standards, as well as the opinion of 3 constitutional experts, Aurela Anasatasi, Erind Mërkuri, Silva Caka.

Outlining the initiative, Bushka said that, “39 deputies of the majority in their initiative have requested amendment of the Constitution aimed at successfully completing the re-evaluation of judges and prosecutors as part of justice reform.”

She said that the deadline of Vetting process, as one of the pillars of justice reform, will expire in June 2022, but not all revaluation cases have been handled. Out of a total of about 800 cases so far, over 30% of them have not been handled. But this number may change because the work is ongoing until June 2022.”

To that end, she added, “we propose extending this deadline because at the core of the constitutional amendments is the equal treatment of cases. ”

“The Constitution stipulates that at the end of the term this process will be transferred to the HJC for judges and the HPC for prosecutors, while the competence of Public Commissioners, which is the first link of Vetting and SAC, will be delegated to the Special Prosecution body. “So, we have a pre-determined constitutional scenario, which has not left no loopholes in the framework of justice reform,” said Bushka.

Bushka said that, “today we have a different situation from the time of this decision-making because first, despite the fact that the Vetting bodies had to start working within 2017 due to dynamics at that time, the delay in establishing institutions between the two legislatures, the first cases started to be handled in 2018. ”
Also, Bushka added that, “the pandemic has also contributed to the delay, therefore in these conditions the proposals to extend the term is justified, because due to the pandemic the Vetting bodies were not able to work for months.”

Bushka said, “there are two options on the table, either to extend the term of the re-evaluation bodies until the end of 2024 or to move ahead with the scenario laid down in the Constitution. ”

“After the process of consultation with stakeholders, experts, the Venice Commission, based on also the views of the IMO, EU and OPDAT we have come to conclusion that the proposal to amend the Constitution and extend the term of the vetting bodies is the version, which justifies the current situation,” Bushka said.

Bushka added that, “this proposal is in line with European standards and is consistent with the process and guarantees its integrity because it is based on the principle of equal treatment of cases.”

At the conclusion of her speech, Bushka asked the deputies to vote for this initiative.
At the end of the joint meeting, the proposed draft law was approved in principle, article by article and in its entirety. /j.p/sm/