Committee Chairman Ulsi Manja said that after the presentation of the initiatives to the committee, the opinion of the European Commission and the judicial bodies themselves will be sought before their review continues in the parliamentary committees.
Olsi Komici, MP who initiated two draft laws that affect the law "On the status of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania" and the law "On the governing bodies of the justice system", presented his initiatives initially in the Committee on Civic Initiatives, Cooperation and Institutional Oversight and then in the Laws Committee.
Komici described the changes as a necessary intervention for the strengthening and functionality of the Justice Reform and in line with the fulfillment of obligations stemming from the European integration process.
According to him, the new provisions provide for higher standards and new deadlines for the verification of candidates for the two councils coming from civil society, the legal profession and academia, increased transparency in parallel moves and promotions, the attributes of the role of the Prosecutor General in the process of selecting heads of prosecution offices, transparency of council decisions, etc.
The socialist MP referred to the recommendations received earlier by the European Commission for the two drafts regarding some legal wording, which were reflected in the final content of the draft presented to the MPs.
According to him, the recommendations were mainly related to the formulations on the criteria for selecting candidates, requesting that terms related to moral and professional integrity be replaced with clear criteria.
"We have set criteria such as; not having a disciplinary measure in force, having successfully passed the vetting, or not having resigned if he/she has been subject to vetting" - he said, adding that "the other recommendation has to do with the formulation of serious ethical and moral behavior, it is requested to be removed from the text of the draft law, as a general and unclear formulation that leaves room for subjective interpretations, which will be continuously reflected in the relevant articles".
Komici also said that the changes could include a proposal from the Union of Judges to postpone the retirement age for judges on the verge of retirement in order to engage them in resolving the backlog of cases.
The Chairman of the Committee for Civic Initiatives, Fatmir Xhafa, described the presentation of the initiatives as the start of the process for reviewing the Justice Reform and raised questions about how much these provisions solve the problems faced by the justice system.
"Does the publication of decisions solve the transparency? Does it increase quality, or does it solve the problem of credibility and accountability?" he said, asking the deputies to view the changes taking into account these elements that were related to the problems identified during the years that these laws have been implemented.
The drafting of Justice Reform laws began as a project in 2022 when the Laws Committee established a working group among SP and DP deputies, but the drafts prepared by this working group in closed consultations among justice leaders were mostly rejected by the expertise of the EU-Just and OPDAT missions. /BIRN/
