Progress report for Albania

The Political Criteria part gives positive notes to the elections, the political situation, the passing of some key laws and the fulfillment of the necessary obligations for achieving the candidate status.

“Overall, the functioning of Parliament improved. Transparency of the legislative process and
involvement of civil society and interest groups increased. Albania needs to focus its efforts
on a more inclusive consultation process and on strengthening parliament’s oversight role. It
is important that the cooperation between the government and the opposition functions well to
provide a solid basis for further reforms”, the report says.

Political and integration reforms have continued before and after the elections, and also by the new government after coming in power.

“The implementation of the revised action plan to address the Opinion’s key priorities continued, albeit at a slow pace. The new government will need to focus immediately on strengthening strategic planning and budgeting and on improving the coordination at central level and/with local level”, the report continues.

After noting the passing of the Normative Act by the Rama government, which is being made to avoid a legal gap with the entering in effect of the Civil Serice, the report says that there is progress even in the public administration sector, which is one of the 12 key priorities of the Commission’s Opinion in  2010.

“Overall, progress has been made in public administration reform and a major step taken on this key priority with the adoption of the Civil Service Law. It now needs urgent implementation to enforce merit-based practice. Enforcement of existing legislation and administrative acts needs to be stepped up. The Department of Public Administration needs to be strengthened.  Idependent institutions need to be enhanced and their recommendations
acted upon. Further efforts are needed to depoliticize the public administration, ensure
continuity, fight corruption, strengthen meritocracy in appointments, promotions and dismissals, and increase its efficiency and financial sustainability”, the report continues.

According to the report, the justice reform strategy, another key priority of the Opinion, is now being implemented, while they value the passing of the Supreme Code Law. Meanwhile, the treatment of suspects in detention cells is another obligation that takes positive notes.

“The follow-up to recommendations of the Ombudsman has improved. For example, the majority of recommendations on ill-treatment in detention centres – an issue covered by the key priorities– was addressed by prisons and the State Police”, the report continues.

In the report of one year ago, the Commission came to the conclusion that Albania had fulfilled four of twelve key priorities of the opinion: the Parliament functionality; the passing of qualified majority laws; the Electoral Code amend; the appointment of the Ombudsman and the process of hearing and voting candidates before appointing them in key institutions. While two other priorities were considered almost fulfilled at that time: the public administration reform and the improvement of treatment in detention centers.

One year later, with the above-mentioned conclusions and others in some important sectors, the Commission seems to confirm the sufficient progress made by our country that will allow an unconditioned recommendation of the candidate status.

Prepared by ERNEST BUNGURI

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Progress-report critics

Besides the achievements of Albania in some key priorities, despite the seemingly positive notes of the Commission, the progress report has objectively included some of the known issues, such as corruption, crime, traffic and the judiciary.

The judiciary

“The status of the High Court and the process of appointing judges to this Court remain, however, issues of concern in terms of possible politiicisation, as long as the relevant constitutional provisions are not amended. The independence and impartiality of the High Court is still not fully guaranteed”, the document states.

The power to open or close a disciplinary procedure remains an exclusive competence of the Minister of Justice, which is against the European Union standards.

Implementation of the 2012 constitutional reform limiting the immunity of judges has still to be ensured. Amendements of the Code of Criminal Procedure making the arrest of judges and house and personal searches possible have not yet been adopted.

The lack of accountability for     the Prosecution General is concerning. The procedure for appointing and dismissing the personnel in this office should be transparent and impartial, and the role of the Council of Prosecutors need to be reinforced.

Failing to execute court verdicts, especially the ones including the state institutions, remains a serious problem.”

Although there is progress in the fight against corruption with some initial signs of evidence in several sectors, corruption remains a serious and dominating problem in many sectors, such as health, justice, taxes and customs.

Corruption

“Overall, the number of investigations and punishments remains low. High Inspectorate of Declaration and Audit of Assets’s audit capacity needs to be improved. Coordination among institutions and further investigation of these cases needs to be stepped up. Overall, investigations continue to have reactive, rather than proactive, nature and risk assessments for corruption and are not carried out systematically”

State institutions dealing with the fight against corruption remain vulnerable to political pressure and influence. It is particularly important to ensure transparent and merit-based criteria for appointments and dismissals.

The role of civil society is still limited despite a recent increase in the use of social media as a means for drawing attention to complaints and reporting abuses.

The use of proactive investigations and risk assessments in the tax service needs to be strengthened. Corruption in the tax service remains a concerning issue.

A track record of disciplinary measures against justice has started to be built. However, there is no effective system of asset declaration and verifications. Risk of corruption and undue influence on the transfers of judges and promotions have not been treated enough. Corruption in the judiciary remains a specially serious problem.”

The document values that despite the legal amends in May, the free legal assistance for traffic victims is damaged by the high judiciary fees and the big number of documents that victims need to withdraw from several state institutions.

Crime and traffic

“Organized crime remains a serious concern and further efforts will be needed to improve Albania’s track record. The Criminal Procedure Code amends are pending. The number of confiscations of criminal assets and punishments for money laundering remain low. Albania remains a source country for traffic of adults and minors, including children forced to beg. This issue requires a better coordination between the law enforcing and social service agencies. Cultivation and traffic of cannabis remains a serious concern”.

The report’s part about the judiciary shows some details of the four people who were killed on January 21st, and the fact that the defendants were sentenced with one and three years in prison, from 21 and 23 that the Prosecution had demanded. Same as for the Gerdec case, for which the report mentions the fact that charges were dropped against the former Minister of Defense, thanks to an amnesty that was given on the 100th anniversary of independence. On the same chapter has been mentioned the hunger strike of the former political prisoners and the reasons that drove them to this strike.

Prepared by: ARTA TOZAJ

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