The audit of the Supreme State Audit Office on the follow-up and execution of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the period 2023–2024 highlights concerns over compliance with legal deadlines and an increased cost to the Albanian state budget.
According to the report, during 2023, the ECHR examined 47 cases related to Albania for 75 claims, where the claimants claimed damages of about 2 billion lek, while the Court only accepted 29 million lek, or 279 thousand euros. In 18 decisions, violations by the Albanian state were found and in 16 cases the claims were declared inadmissible, while the State Attorney's Office oriented more towards resolving the cases through reconciliation.
The data shows that in 2023, 23 decisions against Albania became final, of which 14 were executed, with damages of 10,416,942 lek and 68,166 lek interest for 5 decisions liquidated outside the 3-month deadline. Meanwhile, 9 other decisions from 2023 were paid in 2024, with a value of 21,263,173 lek, of which 37,396 lek was interest for delays. Also, for 2 decisions from 2019–2021, with damages of 4,018,746 lek, 369,741 lek interest was paid. In total, during the period 2023–2024, 19 decisions were settled outside the legal deadline, resulting in a financial damage of 485,916 lek.
In 2024, the ECHR issued 49 decisions on 67 claims, where the claims for compensation amounted to 5,601,036 euros, while the Court accepted only 212,600 euros. During the period January–December 2024, the Albanian state executed 31 decisions, with a compensation value of 30,355,446 lek and 48,009 lek interest for delays, reaching a total of 30,403,545 lek. Of these, 9 decisions were carried over from 2023.
By the end of 2024, 6 decisions worth 97,100 euros remained unexecuted, while 3 of them were paid in the first quarter of 2025 for an amount of 15,900 euros, where two were paid late, with delays of 15 and 46 days.
The audit found that 2 of these decisions unexecuted at the end of 2024 (with a compensation of 70,800 euros) were outside the 3-month deadline from the moment the court decision becomes final, increasing the risk of increasing the negative effects that they have on the payment of interest, actions in violation of the law "On the State Attorney".
Likewise, according to the report, one of the most serious problems remains the non-implementation of 6 ECHR decisions from 2015-2018, with a total value of around 17 million euros, with just one case accounting for around 13.3 million euros. These decisions, which have not been executed for more than 7 years, significantly increase the risk of late payment interest.
The audit finds that the non-implementation of these decisions is in violation of Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 122 of the Constitution, which makes international agreements and decisions binding on Albania. Also, for three final decisions of 2024, with payment deadlines in 2024 and early 2025, it results that the decisions of the Council of Ministers were approved with delays of over 5 months, in violation of the law on the State Attorney's Office.
Another serious problem is the lack of calculation of interests by the Ministry of Finance in annual reports and debt records, which means that even the State Attorney's Office does not have complete information on real liabilities. For this reason, the audit team was unable to accurately calculate the expected damage from interests, especially for decisions that have not been executed for more than 5 years.
According to the report, the interests that will be applied on the amount of 17,968,650 euros will generate further damage to the state budget, while the delays and inactions of the responsible institutions, mainly the Ministry of Finance and the Council of Ministers, create a high risk of additional financial consequences. This situation requires increased attention and immediate intervention to guarantee compliance with Albania's legal and international obligations./ekofin.al
