An interview with Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, Director for Western Balkans at the EU Directorate General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. In this capacity, she is responsible for managing bilateral relations between the EU and Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, guiding and monitoring their progress toward the EU. In Albania, she has particularly been involved in the justice reform, leading a team of international officials monitoring its implementation. DW’s Ani Ruci interviewed her about the justice reform’s implementation and its vetting process for judges and prosecutors.
DW: Ms. Calavera when the re-evaluation of judges and prosecutors, the vetting process will start in Albania since it considered as the founding stone to have a fair, impartial and independent judiciary?
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera: You put it very right: the vetting process is so important for Albania that it can be considered a process of historic relevance, a defining moment for the justice system in the country, but not only. Strengthening an impartial, independent, accountable, efficient and truly professional judiciary has relevance also for a broader challenge:to irreversibly consolidate the rule of law in Albania, once for all. With such expectations, clearly, the earlier the process starts the better it will be. The citizens of Albania have already waited too long; they deserve a judicial system that can be truly relied upon, by everybody.
As regards the constitutional and legal requirements for the international community to monitor and, so speak,’accompany’ the process, I can only confirm that all preparations have been timely undertaken. The International Monitoring Operation (IMO) is ready to deploy its highly qualified expertise to accompany the process, once the domestic vetting institutions are ready to begin the re-evaluation process, which we hope will start by early Autumn. Yet, to be clear, while the international community holds responsibilities to monitor the process, it is up to the domestic structures, the vetting institutions that have just been put in place, to carry out first-hand the re-evaluation.
DW: Are there risks that could jeopardized the overall successful implementation of the vetting process which have been taken to consideration to obviated?
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera: In complex reform processes there are always risks. The vetting process is surely amongst the most complex endeavours on the current reform agenda. Preparations have been carried out based on very intense consultations, both amongst political actors domestically, and between those and the international community, to mitigate as much as possible potential risks. Actual implementation of the process will require dedication, courage, and readiness to swiftly overcome any bottleneck that might come along the way.
DW: Will vetting process in Albania handle with the judges or prosecutors that resigned in time, escaping, de facto, from the investigation of their past related to their assets and connections with organized crime? What about those who refuse to declare their assets and don’t resign?
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera: The law on the vetting provided a clear timeline for all the members of the judiciary to submit preliminary information on their assets and patrimonies. By that deadline, some judges, prosecutors and legal advisers opted to resign. In a sense this proves that the vetting process has started to deliver, even far ahead of its actual beginning. The process develops on three clear pillars: background, assets and proficiency assessments, which will be compulsory and carried out for each member of the judiciary. We will monitor that investigations will be thorough and ultimately allow cleaning up the ranks of the justice system from those who do not serve in the interest of the Albanian citizens, but have pursued corrupted practices and/or developed links with organised criminal networks.
DW: Calavera what’s the situation on establishing the High Judicial Council and the High Prosecution Council, two new institutions to implement the justice reform?
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera: We are monitoring very closely the formation of the new councils that will be first-hand responsible to administer the justice system. There are some specific legal responsibilities attributed to the IMO in this regard, when it comes to the appointment of the lay members of those councils. Thus far, we maintained close consultation and partnership with the relevant authorities,in order to carry out our respective duties in a timely fashion and ease the finalisation of these processes.
DW: Please could you foresee when the first results of the justice reform in Albania will be achieved as the precondition for Albania opening the accession negotiations with EU?
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera: We have already seen the first results with the new legal framework that has been adopted to underpin justice reform. Further concrete achievements will now depend on many factors and it is difficult to make specific predictions on timing. But one thing has been very reassuring thus far: to see that the citizens’ demand for change has not been left unheard. Hopefully, this will continue to push the reform engine forward and generate all the positive changes that are long due. I really have ground to maintain a very optimistic perspective, including with seeing very soon the vetting moving forward.
DW: Is the situation within EU in favor of concrete actions and political decisions to speed up the pace of integration process for candidate countries for accession in Western Balkans like Albania? Is the geo-political situation in the region having its role in the EU enlargement policy?
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera: The EU is facing many challenges, most of which are linked to global issues and complex dynamics also beyond the Union. Recent history has once more shown that when unity within the EU prevails, shared solutions based on solidarity have brought benefits to all countries in Europe and beyond. This has also been relevant for the Western Balkans countries. Cooperation on the refugee crises through the region, for instance, has shown that ever closer partnership is necessary and the ultimate goal of granting EU membership to all countries in the region represents nothing but the culmination of a natural historic trajectory: the Western Balkans are part of the European family and their future lies within the Union. In this context, reference has to be made also to the important progress achieved in the framework of the Western Balkans Process. The recent summit in Trieste was the occasion to strengthen dialogue and also concrete cooperation in many sensitive sectors, confirming a strong joint commitment to advance further our bilateral relations as well as regional cooperation.
Interview by Ani Ruci, DW, republished in English by Tirana Times with permission.
