Can Albania Find Qualified Candidates to do its Vetting of Judges and Prosecutors?

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – At least 11 candidates selected by the Ombudsman to be part of the ‘Vetting’ structures which will scan all judges and prosecutors of the small corrupt Balkan country, may not be able to qualify due to criteria problems.

According to Syri.net portal, experts say that not all candidates selected by the Ombudsman from the 169 applicants will be able to pass the legal requirements, because they do not fulfill the criteria as set out by the new justice reform provisions. At least 11 candidates wil lfail to meet the requirements among whom notable names such as former member of the High Court Shpresa Becaj, former General Prosecutor Ina Rama and High Council of Justice member Sokol Como.

Several candidates have either previously been indicted on corruption charges, have had political affiliations or are currently working in the justice system. Other have no accumulated enough years of professional experience while several candidates have worked outside Albania without being able to properly prove substantial professional experience in the judicial field.

Last week, the Ombudsman of Albania selected 29 out of 190 applicants to be considered to be part of the Vetting structures. All names will be monitored by the International Monitoring Operation run jointly by the EU and US while all final names will have to undergo themselves the tough vetting criteria which were voted last year at the Albanian Parliament.

Albanian people hope that their country will be able to start its accession talks for membership into the European Union pending on its historic reform of the rotten and corrupt system of justice institutions.

Last November, the European Commission recommended that EU member states consider opening accession negotiations with Albania, conditional on constitutional amendments which pave the pay for [implementation] of a comprehensive judicial reform.

The Commission has said that before the next June 18 general elections , “Albania is expected to adopt in due time amendments to the electoral code and related reforms,” according to the country’s progress. These should address in particular the lack of impartiality and professionalism of the electoral administration.