Presideht of Venice Commission writes to Albanian President

Gianni Buquicchio guaranteed that the Venice Commission will always be available to assist the Albanian authorities through this important process, key for opening Albania’s EU accession negotiations.

The full letter:

“Dear President Nishani,

I read your letter with a lot of attention. I am deeply touched by your commitment and energy, and I share your desire to further the process of the judicial reform in Albania and to bring the Albanian judiciary in line with the European standards. On our side, let me assure you that the Venice Commission was and remains at the disposal of the Albanian authorities to assist them within this process.

Indeed, it took some time to shape the reform and formulate main proposals. As you certainly know, the draft amendments we received for analysis were developed by the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee. If our understanding is correct, those draft amendments were formulated without the participation of the opposition members of the Committee. However, the parliamentary opposition (namely the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration) formulated their objections/commentary to the project; we received and published them on our web-site additional background material for this opinion.

So, while the focus of our opinion will be the “main” project of the constitutional reform, as formulated by the Ad Hoc Committee, the rapporteurs will examine this project in line with the comments and criticisms expressed by the opposition. In addition, as follows from the draft agenda of our visit, our visit includes a separate meeting with the opposition, which would permit us to know their views even better. Finally, as I noted with great satisfaction in the program, the rapporteurs will have a chance of meeting you, Mr President and discuss the essential points of the upcoming reform.

 In conclusion, let me emphasize that while the involvement of the Venice Commission cannot solve all the political discordances within a given country, in our opinions we always called for an inclusive political process involving a broad spectrum of political actors. This is a fortiori important when constitutional amendments are concerned – this is the reason why, in addition to the official project we will take into account the alternative points of view.

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