Race for new judges starts

TIRANA, Jan. 26 – President Bamir Topi, also head of the High Council of Justice, announced Monday that there were vacancies for six judges at the Constitutional Court and two at the Supreme Court.
That means that every lawyer with experience of at least 10 to 15 years may run for the posts.
The time line is until mid-February.
The judges send their request to the Council which discusses their career. Then the Council offers the candidates to the parliament which votes for them.
Such a procedure proved very long two years ago for some posts at the Supreme Court.
The Judiciary remains the Achilles’ heel in the country’s integration efforts into the European Union.
Corruption and lack of professionalism have often been mentioned as the main shortcomings to its reforms.