TIRANA, July 13 – Following a three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Commission of Inquiry into the dismissal of President Ilir Meta will convene in a meeting on Monday.
The meeting will involve discussions about the final opinion of the Venice Commission, which backed President Meta in the issues of the Constitutional Court appointments, as well as the President’s impeachment.
In its final opinion focusing on the appointment of judges to the Albanian Constitutional Court, requested by both the Albanian parliament and the President, the Venice Commission noted The Judicial Appointments Council “created a major procedural incident” when it sent time lists of candidates first to the President and then to Parliament. According to the document, “it should be clear that the date of submission of the lists would have significant consequences due to the possible implementation of the automatic appointment, based on the 30-day rule.” Moreover, for four vacancies there were only 6 candidates, whose names were on the lists of both institutions.
The Commission concluded that in a situation of lack of clarity and in the absence of a functioning Constitutional Court, the nomination by default of Arta Vorpsi to that Court should not have been considered valid, as the President had raised a question relating to the interpretation of the relevant procedure.
The clash between the parties began after Meta decided not to appoint one of the candidates for the vacancy to be filled by the Head of State, arguing that he had already filled a vacancy and it was up to Parliament to proceed with electing a candidate from the lists.
According to the majority, Meta failed to abide by the 30-day deadline set by the law, and as a result, the top-ranked candidate Arta Vorpsi was automatically named.
The parliament followed with the election of two candidates, while Meta subsequently decreed from his list Marsida Xhaferllari who was invited to take the oath, along with the two candidates elected by parliament.
Meta spoke about an attempt by the majority to take over his powers and launched a fierce battle against the Chairman of the Justice Appointments Council, Ardian Dvorani, whom he described as the cause of the created situation and a man who had worked on behalf of the ruling majority.
All of this, as well as the further decision of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, set up to dismiss Meta as president, to expand the scope of his work, not only on the occasion of the decree canceling the June 30 elections, but also on the appointments to the Constitutional Court constitute the first part of the more than 40-page petition Meta filed with the Venice Commission.
